Webdesk: The UN Security Council unanimously condemned a Taliban administration ban on Afghan women working for the UN in Afghanistan on Thursday. It urged Taliban leaders to “swiftly reverse” a crackdown on women and girls’ rights.
The UAE-Japan resolution calls the ban “unprecedented in the history of the UN,” asserts “the indispensable role of women in Afghan society”. Says it “undermines human rights and humanitarian principles.”
Moreover, UAE UN Ambassador Lana Nusseibeh said over 90 countries co-sponsored the resolution “from Afghanistan’s immediate neighbourhood, from the Muslim world and from all corners of the earth.”
“This…support makes our fundamental message today even more significant – the world will not sit by silently as women in Afghanistan are erased from society,” she told the council.
The Security Council voted days before a May 1-2 Afghanistan conference in Doha. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres will coordinate a Taliban strategy with Afghanistan special envoys.
“We will not stand for the Taliban’s repression of women and girls,” Deputy U.S. Ambassador to the UN Robert Wood told the council. “These decisions are indefensible. They’re unique.
“Taliban edicts are ruining Afghanistan.”
While, The Taliban banned UN women this month after banning most Afghan women from humanitarian aid groups in December. After overthrowing the Western-backed government in 2021, they barred women from university and closed girls’ high schools.
Moreover, Taliban law protects women’s rights. The Taliban called female aid workers a “internal issue.”
The Security Council resolution also calls for using Central Bank assets to help Afghanistan’s economy.
“As of today, what we have seen is only that assets have been transferred from one account to another, but not a single penny returned to the Afghan people,” China’s Deputy UN Ambassador Geng Shuang told the council.
Russia’s UN Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia demanded the Afghan Central Bank’s assets.
