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In a rare show of unity, the United Nations Security Council adopted a resolution on Thursday condemning the Taliban’s discrimination against women and girls in Afghanistan and calling on the country’s leaders to immediately reverse policies that prohibit the education, employment and public participation of women and children. -the same girls.
The resolution, co-sponsored by more than 90 countries, received 15 yes votes and was adopted unanimously in the last days of Russia’s month-long role as rotating president of the Council.
“The world will not stand by silently because Afghan women have been removed from society,” said Lana Nusseibeh, the UAE’s UN ambassador, who led the drafting of the resolution with Japanese representatives. He said the council was sending “an unequivocal message of condemnation” to the Taliban for its treatment of women and girls.
The resolution, which calls for the “full, equal, meaningful and safe participation of women and girls in Afghanistan,” also states that the Taliban government’s April 4 edict prohibits the United Nations from using Afghan women. Such an attitude – “unprecedented in the history of the United Nations,” the resolution said – “undermines human rights and humanitarian principles.”
The 15-member Security Council has been deeply divided since Russia invaded Ukraine, unable to find a consensus position on many of the world’s most pressing issues. When the Council was finally able to come together through the Taliban’s treatment of women, in the negotiations through the resolution of the last word Complex and long, according to diplomats involved in the talks.
The resolution, valid under international law, does not specify what consequences the Taliban government in Afghanistan will face if it violates its demands. But most of the Security Council can impose sanctions on countries or governments that do not comply with the resolutions.
Persistent discrimination against women and girls has been a major obstacle in the Taliban’s bid to be recognized as the legitimate ruler of Afghanistan following the US withdrawal in 2021 and the fall of the Western-backed government.
Despite the ban of the Taliban to employ Afghan women, the United Nations has said that it is not planning to leave the country because of the serious humanitarian needs of the Afghan people. Nearly two-thirds of Afghanistan’s 40 million people depend on humanitarian aid for food and medicine.
The UN mission in Afghanistan said in a statement in April that it could not comply with the ban because it violated international law and the principles of the UN charter. It has ordered Afghan employees, both women and men, to stay at home, and has launched a comprehensive review of operations in Afghanistan that will take place on May 5.
The Taliban “are trying to force the United Nations to make a terrible choice between staying and providing support to the Afghan people and adhering to the norms and principles that must be followed,” the statement said.
Since seizing power in August 2021, the Taliban have continued to restrict the rights of women and girls, reversing the progress made in the two decades since the US-led military invasion in 2001 ended the Taliban’s first phase as the ruler of Afghanistan.
Over the past year, top Taliban leaders have banned girls from education after the sixth grade, barring women from most jobs and limiting their presence in public life.
António Guterres, the UN secretary-general, is holding a meeting next month in Doha, Qatar, to find a way forward in Afghanistan on humanitarian operations, the Taliban government and counterterrorism.
The United Nations says the Doha meeting is not about recognition for the Taliban, a matter for member states to decide.
Afghanistan’s seat at the UN is still held by the former government. The Taliban have appointed Suhail Shaheen, head of the group’s political office in Doha, but so far, he has not been recognized by the UN’s credentials committee.
On Tuesday, more than 100 civil society organizations and women’s rights activists wrote an open letter to the United Nations calling for action against Taliban discrimination.
“It is time for the UN to show its commitment to women’s rights by standing with them and suspending its activities in Afghanistan until female staff are allowed to work,” the letter said.
Christina Goldbaum contribute reports.
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