Taliban must ‘swiftly reverse’ crackdown on women’s rights: UN | Women’s Rights News

The Security Council unanimously voted to condemn the ban on Afghan women working for the United Nations, the latest move to limit the lives of women and girls.

The United Nations Security Council (UNSC) unanimously condemned the Taliban’s ban on Afghan women working for the United Nations in Afghanistan, and called on Taliban leaders to “quickly reverse” the campaign. oppress the rights of women and girls.

The resolution – drafted by the United Arab Emirates and Japan – describes the ban as “unprecedented in the history of the United Nations” and says it “undermines the principles of human rights and religion”. The resolution also affirms the “indispensable role of women in Afghan society”.

The UAE’s ambassador to the United Nations, Lana Nusseibeh, said more than 90 countries had co-sponsored the resolution – “from the vicinity of Afghanistan, from the Muslim world and from every corner of the earth”.

“This support… makes our basic message all the more important today – the world will not sit idly by as women in Afghanistan are wiped out from society,” she told UNSC.

The UNSC vote comes days before an international meeting has been scheduled, involving Afghanistan, in Doha on May 1-2. United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres will convene behind closed doors special envoys on Afghanistan from various countries to discuss a unified approach to dealing with the Taliban.

“We will not support the Taliban’s oppression of women and girls,” Deputy US Ambassador to the UN, Robert Wood, told UNSC. “These decisions are inexcusable. They are not seen anywhere else in the world.”

“Taliban edicts are causing irreparable damage to Afghanistan.”

Earlier this month, the Taliban began enforcing a ban on Afghan women from working for the UN after stopping most women from working for humanitarian aid groups in December. Since toppling the Western-backed government By 2021, the group has also tightened controls on women’s access to public life, including banning women from attending college and closing all-girls high schools.

The Taliban said they respect women’s rights under a strict interpretation of Islamic law and that decisions about female aid workers are an “internal matter”.

The Security Council resolution also recognized the need to address the significant challenges facing the Afghan economy, including using the assets of the Central Bank of Afghanistan for the benefit of the Afghan people.

Washington froze billions of dollars of the bank’s reserves in the United States and then transferred half of it to a trust in Switzerland overseen by the trustees of the United States, Switzerland and Afghanistan.

“Until today, what we see is just assets that have been transferred from one account to another, but not a single cent has been returned to the people of Afghanistan,” said China’s deputy ambassador to the UN, Geng. Shuang, told UNSC.

Russia’s ambassador to the United Nations, Vassily Nebenzia, also called for the return of the assets of the Central Bank of Afghanistan.