Afghanistan: Quarterly Meeting
Tomorrow morning (10 December), the Security Council will hold an open briefing on Afghanistan. Deputy Special Representative of the Secretary-General (Political) and Officer-in-Charge of the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) Georgette Gagnon, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Tom Fletcher, and a woman civil society representative are expected to brief. Slovenian Minister of Foreign and European Affairs Tanja Fajon will chair the meeting. She is also expected to deliver a joint statement focusing on the human rights situation in Afghanistan on behalf of a group of member states at a press stakeout ahead of the meeting, which will take place on Human Rights Day. Closed consultations are scheduled to follow the open briefing.
New clashes between the Pakistani military and Taliban security forces have erupted in recent days. Pakistani and Taliban officials confirmed that the skirmishes broke out along the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan on 5 December, with each side blaming the other for starting the fighting. According to media reports, at least five people were killed during the exchange, which lasted for approximately four hours. The attacks came about six weeks after the two sides agreed to a ceasefire during talks mediated by Qatar and Türkiye that followed a series of deadly border clashes and Pakistani air strikes on Afghan territory in mid-October. (For more information, see the Afghanistan brief in our December 2025 Monthly Forecast.) A fourth round of talks between Pakistan and the Taliban, which reportedly took place in Saudi Arabia in late November, failed to yield a lasting agreement between the two sides. Council members are likely to be interested in hearing Gagnon’s analysis of these developments.
The human rights situation in Afghanistan is expected to be a major focus of tomorrow’s meeting. The Secretary-General’s latest report on Afghanistan (S/2025/789), which was circulated to Council members on 3 December and covers developments since 5 September, notes that the Taliban’s restrictive policies continue to pose a major obstacle to the protection and promotion of human rights and have further deepened the impasse in relations between the Taliban and the international community.
The situation is particularly dire for Afghan women and girls. The Secretary-General’s report highlights several examples of Taliban policies that have restricted their rights, including the closure of educational institutions for girls, a prohibition on materials written by women in Afghan universities, and a ban preventing female Afghan UN staff from entering UN compounds. It notes that these policies clearly violate Afghanistan’s international human rights obligations, including those set out in the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), and says that they undermine the rights of Afghan women and girls, hinder delivery of essential services, and severely compromise the country’s future development. During tomorrow’s meeting, many Council members are expected to convey similar messages and urge the Taliban to reverse their policies and practices that violate the rights of women and girls.
Council members are also likely to discuss other examples of human rights violations mentioned in the Secretary-General’s report. It notes that the implementation of the Law on the Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice, which was promulgated in August 2024, continues to restrict Afghans’ human rights and fundamental freedoms and expresses concern regarding the arbitrariness, severity, and proportionality of punishments imposed by the Taliban for alleged failures to comply with the edict. The report also mentions the ongoing use of the death penalty, including public executions, and highlights the human rights impact of the two-day telecommunications shutdown that began on 29 September. On 28 October, UNAMA issued a report documenting the impact of the shutdown. The report found that it affected the rights of Afghans in a multitude of ways, including by disrupting travel, exacerbating restrictions imposed on women and girls, and impeding access to healthcare.
In discussing the overall human rights situation in Afghanistan, some members might call on the Taliban to comply with Afghanistan’s international obligations, including those outlined in human rights treaties. Some members may highlight the importance of accountability and welcome the Human Rights Council’s recent decision to establish an independent investigative mechanism to collect and analyse evidence of international crimes and serious violations of international law in Afghanistan and prepare files for criminal proceedings.
Fletcher will deliver his briefing pursuant to resolution 2615 of 22 December 2021, which established a humanitarian exception to the 1988 Afghanistan sanctions regime and requested a briefing from the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) on the delivery of humanitarian assistance in Afghanistan every six months. He is likely to note that Afghanistan is currently grappling with one of the worst humanitarian crises in the world, with approximately 22.9 million Afghans, more than half of the country’s population, requiring assistance in 2025. He is also likely to describe the impact that funding shortfalls have had on the humanitarian response. At the time of writing, the Afghanistan Humanitarian Needs and Response Plan had received only 37.1 percent of the $2.42 billion required in 2025. According to the Secretary-General’s report, this shortfall has led to reductions in food, health, and protection assistance, which has affected millions of Afghans suffering from rising malnutrition and disease outbreaks.
In addition, Fletcher may highlight the effects of the Taliban’s ban on women humanitarian workers. OCHA’s latest humanitarian access snapshot for Afghanistan, which was issued on 26 November, notes that the ban has prevented female staff from reporting to work and female beneficiaries from receiving assistance and accessing essential services. Fletcher might also refer to the impact that other developments, including the earthquake that struck eastern Afghanistan in early September and the expulsion of Afghan nationals from Iran and Pakistan, have had on the provision of humanitarian assistance.
Council members are likely to be interested in receiving an update on the Taliban’s efforts to enforce the ban on Afghan women working for the UN, which was first introduced in April 2023, and its impact on the UN’s work in Afghanistan. The Secretary-General’s report notes that the Taliban began strictly enforcing the ban on 7 September by deploying personnel to prevent Afghan women from entering UN premises and indicates that these restrictions currently remain in place.
Members are also expected to express concerns about the threat of terrorism emanating from Afghanistan tomorrow. The latest report of the Monitoring Team assisting the 1267/1989/2253 Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL/Da’esh) Sanctions Committee, which was issued on 24 July, says that the Taliban have continued to maintain a permissive environment for a range of terrorist groups that pose a serious threat to other member states. It notes that the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant-Khorasan (ISIL-K), ISIL’s Afghan affiliate, remains the most serious threat both regionally and internationally, and also indicates that Tehrik-e Taliban Pakistan (TTP) has “continued to receive substantial logistical and operational support” from the Taliban. Council members are likely to call on the Taliban to adhere to their commitments regarding the prevention of terrorism and emphasise that Afghanistan must not become a haven for terrorist groups.
Some members might raise the travel ban imposed by the 1988 Afghanistan sanctions regime and recent requests for exemptions to that ban. In a departure from previous practice, the US has apparently continued to block the majority of travel ban exemption requests submitted to the 1988 Afghanistan Sanctions Committee. While some members might suggest that the standing exemption to the travel ban that expired in August 2022 should be reinstated, others could argue that such a move is not warranted given the Taliban’s recent actions and ongoing refusal to reverse their policies and practices that violate human rights. It seems that this issue was discussed during informal consultations of the 1988 Afghanistan Sanctions Committee held on 5 December, which also featured a briefing from the Monitoring Team assisting the Committee regarding its upcoming report.
Council members are also expected to discuss the Afghanistan independent assessment requested by resolution 2679 of 16 March 2023 and the related Doha process. (Among other matters, the independent assessment outlined an “architecture for engagement” to guide political, humanitarian, and development activities in Afghanistan. For background on the independent assessment and the Doha process, see our 27 November 2023, 8 December 2023, 28 December 2023, and 25 February 2024 What’s in Blue stories and our June 2024 and September 2024 Monthly Forecasts.) It appears that UNAMA, the UN Department of Political and Peacebuilding Affairs (DPPA), and the participants in the Doha process are currently working on the roadmap for political engagement referred to in the independent assessment report. Council members are likely to be interested in receiving an update on this issue during tomorrow’s meeting, and some may express support for the process and urge the Taliban to uphold Afghanistan’s international obligations. Some members may also highlight the importance of putting the rights of Afghan women and their full, equal, meaningful and safe participation at the centre of the process.
