ORAL STATEMENT
Humanists International
57th Session of the UN Human Rights Council (9 September – 11 October 2024)
Item 2: General Debate – Afghanistan
Speaker: Leon Langdon
Mr High Commissioner,
We thank your office for your annual Report and would like to highlight that on Afghanistan.[1] Since the Taliban’s takeover in 2021, there has been a systematic and deliberate rollback of women’s rights, including severe restrictions on their freedom of movement, expression, employment, and dress, among other rights. Reports we have received from Afghanistan also underscore the intersecting persecution that many non-religious individuals – including women – face.
The Report highlights this as systematic gender persecution,[2] but we recall the UN Working Group on Discrimination Against Women and Girls’s opinion that this constitutes an institutionalized framework of apartheid based on gender, and we regret that we do not see this language in the present Report.[3] As recently as August 21st, the Law on Propagation of Virtue and Prevention of Vice has introduced even more restrictions on women’s participation in public life.[4]
Many of these restrictions are grounded in a dogmatic view of Islam that does not align with international standards on the right to freedom of religion or belief, and we echo the High Commissioner’s calls for the Taliban to take effective steps to comply fully with the obligations of Afghanistan under international human rights law.[5]
At the same time, 23.7 million people – including, 5.9 million women – will require humanitarian assistance in the country in 2024.[6] Access to the country, be it for humanitarian organizations, human rights monitors, or the UN and its agencies, is imperative and we call on the Taliban to refrain from blocking access as they have done already to the Special Rapporteur on Afghanistan.
The plight of women and girls in Afghanistan is deeply troubling, and requires the continued attention of the international community. States must continue to apply appropriate pressure on the Taliban to rescind discriminatory laws and edicts, and to comply fully with international human rights and humanitarian law.
Thank you.
[1] A/HRC/57/22
[2] A/HRC/57/22, Para 7
[3] A/ HRC/WG.11/40/1, Para 24-31
[4] https://www.afghanistan-analysts.org/en/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/08/Law-on-Virtue-and-Vice-Basic.pdf
[5] A/HRC/57/22, Para 63
[6] https://www.unocha.org/publications/report/afghanistan/afghanistan-humanitarian-update-february-2024
'Repression of Women and Girls in Afghanistan', Humanists International