The U.N. Security Council unanimously condemned the "unprecedented" restrictions that Afghanistan's de facto rulers imposed on women and girls, including a ban against working for the world body.
Not only has the ban undermined human rights, diplomats said, but also it has undercut humanitarian principles by compromising efforts by the U.N. and other organizations to deliver food and other essential aid to Afghans.
The resolution approved by the 15-nation council on Thursday calls on the Taliban to "swifly reverse" its restrictions and to restore "full, equal, meaningful and safe" participation of women and girls in all aspects of everyday life in Afghanistan.
"These restrictions are unprecedented in the history of the United Nations, and they put the very presence of the U.N. in Afghanistan in jeopardy," said the United Arab Emirates' U.N. Ambassador Lana Nusseibeh, speaking for her nation and Japan, the resolution's co-sponsors.
"But as we all know, this is just the latest in a wave of restrictions that we have witnessed over the past year and a half," Nusseibeh told the council during its meeting at U.N. headquarters in New York.
"By adopting this resolution," she said, "the council will send an unequivocal message of condemnation and a clear call for the swift reversal not only of this latest ban but of others restricting the rights of women and girls in Afghanistan."
Amid an increasingly complex operating environment, in which Afghan women have been banned from working for national & international NGOs & the UN, funding for the #Afghanistan appeal has dried up. This comes at a time when the country is at the highest risk of famine in 25 yrs. pic.twitter.com/wjRdmEBP7j
— OCHA Afghanistan (@OCHAAfg) April 20, 2023
Solidarity with Afghan women
The unanimity behind the resolution was a departure from its deadlock over some of the world's most urgent geopolitical issues.
Most items need support from at least nine of the 15 member nations and the concurrence of China, France, Russia, the U.S. and U.K. – the five members with permanent, veto-wielding seats.
Most of the 3,900 employees who work for the U.N. Assistance Mission in Afghanistan are Afghan nationals.
UNAMA told virtually of its staff – with only a few exceptions for those performing "critical tasks" – to stay home in protest of the Taliban's illegal prohibition against female Afghan aid workers.
The staff includes about 600 Afghan women and 200 women from other nations.
Since the Taliban's return to power in August 2021 as U.S. and NATO forces withdrew, it has restricted women's freedoms despite claiming it would not do so.
Women were barred from doing most jobs and girls could no longer go to school beyond the sixth grade. Aid groups were banned from employing Afghan women.
"If we are to see Afghanistan survive, it will happen only through the restoration of women’s rights," said Habiba Sarabi, Afghanistan's former minister for women's affairs and former governor of Bamyan Province, last month.
"An attack on our human rights in Afghanistan," she said, "is a threat to women’s rights everywhere."
This story has been updated with additional details.
