UNHRC to receive Afghan report
The UN Human Rights Council will receive a report today from Richard Bennett, the UN’s Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in Afghanistan.
The report focuses heavily on the discrimination and exclusion that women have faced in Afghanistan since the 2021 Taliban takeover. After girls were banned from going to secondary school, many human rights organizations voiced concerns that the decision would hurt Afghan women’s mental health and reduce their opportunities.
The report calls on the council to recognize the situation as a “gender apartheid,” and calls for engagement with the Taliban to be conditioned on respect for human rights. The Taliban will be sending a delegation to a UN Conference on Afghanistan in Doha on June 30th, which would be a chance for the UN to discuss human rights issues in the country. However, if the UN announces that they will be putting the topic of women’s rights on the agenda, it is likely that the Taliban will protest the move or even cancel their visit.
