Afghanistan: Open Briefing
Tomorrow morning (18 September), the Security Council will convene for an open briefing on Afghanistan. Special Representative of the Secretary-General and Head of the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) Roza Otunbayeva, UN Women Executive Director Sima Sami Bahous, and a civil society representative are expected to brief. Slovenia’s Minister of Foreign and European Affairs, Tanja Fajon, will chair the meeting.
Slovenia, the Council’s President during September and a signatory to the Shared Commitments on Women, Peace and Security (WPS), has encouraged Council members to focus on the situation of women and girls in Afghanistan in their statements. Prior to the meeting, Council members that have signed on to the Shared Commitments—Ecuador, France, Guyana, Japan, Malta, the Republic of Korea (ROK), Sierra Leone, Slovenia, Switzerland, the UK, and the US—are expected to hold a stakeout regarding WPS issues in Afghanistan.
On 21 August, the Taliban adopted a “Law on the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice”. In a 25 August statement, Otunbayeva noted that the law imposes a wide range of restrictions on personal conduct and provides the Taliban’s morality police with broad enforcement powers, describing it as “a distressing vision for Afghanistan’s future, where moral inspectors have discretionary powers to threaten and detain anyone based on broad and sometimes vague lists of infractions”. Article 13 of the law relates to women and codifies some existing restrictions on their rights while also introducing new restraints and limitations. It provides, for example, that women are required to cover their entire body, a restriction which the Taliban announced in May 2022, and also introduces new rules stipulating that women must “conceal” their voices in certain situations and prohibiting women from looking at “strange men”. According to media reports, the Taliban’s morality police have already begun enforcing the law.
It appears that Japan, the penholder on Afghanistan, circulated a draft press statement in late August that criticised the new law, with a particular focus on the restrictions that it imposed on the rights of women and girls. The proposed draft was blocked by China and Russia shortly after it had been circulated, however. In opposing the draft, both members apparently made several arguments, including that the law was an internal matter that was still being studied by UNAMA, that women’s rights had already been mentioned in several Council products and that other issues also required attention, and that the press statement could jeopardise future engagement between the international community and the Taliban.
On 6 September, 12 Council members issued a joint statement on the human rights situation in Afghanistan. The joint statement expressed deep concern regarding the new law, condemned the systemic gender discrimination and oppression of women and girls in Afghanistan, and urged the Taliban to swiftly reverse their policies and practices that restrict the rights of women and girls. It also stressed that the Taliban’s actions undermine the international community’s efforts to engage with them and referred to Afghanistan’s obligations under human rights treaties, including the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW). Many Council members are expected to convey similar messages at tomorrow’s meeting.
In a 4 September statement, UN Women also expressed concern about the enactment of the new law. The statement said that data obtained by UN Women shows that the Taliban’s edicts are “having dire impacts in the lives of Afghan women and girls” and cited several relevant examples. According to the statement, only one percent of Afghan women surveyed feel that they have influence over decision-making in their communities, while 64 percent do not feel safe leaving their homes and a further eight percent know at least one woman or girl who has attempted suicide since the Taliban seized power in August 2021. Bahous may elaborate on some of the points made in this statement during her briefing tomorrow, while the civil society representative is expected to focus on the Taliban’s policies that restrict the education of girls in Afghanistan.
In response to Otunbayeva’s criticism of the law, some Taliban officials reportedly announced that they will no longer cooperate with UNAMA. Council members are likely to be interested in Otunbayeva’s views about how this will affect UNAMA’s ability to carry out its work.
The humanitarian situation in Afghanistan is also expected to be discussed during tomorrow’s meeting. According to the latest World Food Programme (WFP) report on Afghanistan, which was issued on 6 September, 12.4 million Afghans are currently experiencing high levels of acute food insecurity. Despite the scale of the crisis, the Taliban have continued to pursue policies that curtail the ability of humanitarian actors to provide aid. According to OCHA’s latest humanitarian access snapshot, 106 access incidents were reported in July, leading to the suspension of 59 humanitarian projects. On 16 September, the UN announced that the Taliban have also suspended polio vaccination campaigns in Afghanistan, reportedly due to security concerns and the involvement of women in administering vaccines. Council members may refer to some of these developments during tomorrow’s meeting and highlight the importance of unhindered humanitarian access throughout the country.
The threat posed by terrorism in Afghanistan is also likely to be highlighted. On 2 September, the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant-Khorasan (ISIL-K) carried out a suicide attack in Kabul that killed at least six people and injured 13 more. The attack was condemned by Council members in a 5 September press statement. ISIL-K also claimed responsibility for a 12 September attack targeting members of the Hazara community in central Afghanistan, which killed at least 14 people and injured another six. According to the latest report of the Monitoring Team assisting the 1988 Afghanistan Sanctions Committee, which was issued on 8 July, member states remain concerned by the Taliban’s ability to manage the threat posed by ISIL-K and are also worried about Al-Qaida’s activities in the country. In this regard, Council members may call on the Taliban to adhere to the commitments they have made regarding the prevention of terrorism.
Council members are also likely to discuss the Afghanistan independent assessment, which the Council requested in resolution 2679 of 16 March 2023. (For more information on the independent assessment, see our 27 November 2023, 8 December 2023, and 28 December 2023 What’s in Blue stories.) The Secretary-General’s latest report on Afghanistan, which was issued on 9 September, says that the UN will continue to work with all stakeholders to advance the process set out in the independent assessment report, noting that “the way forward will be long and arduous” and that “[s]uccess will require patience and a willingness to find step-for-step approaches, with the aim of building confidence over time”. In their statements tomorrow, some members are expected to highlight the importance of ensuring the meaningful participation of women in the independent assessment process, while other members may also express support for the recommendations outlined in the report and call for their implementation.
