Afghanistan: Quarterly Meeting
Tomorrow morning (16 September), the Security Council will hold an open briefing on Afghanistan. Deputy Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General (Political) for Afghanistan Georgette Gagnon and a woman civil society representative are expected to brief. Several regional member states are expected to participate in the meeting under rule 37 of the Council’s provisional rules of procedure. Closed consultations are scheduled to follow the open briefing.
France (the Council’s president in September) is expected to deliver a statement during a stakeout prior to the meeting on behalf of the signatories to the Shared Commitments on Women, Peace and Security (WPS)—Colombia, Denmark, France, Greece, Latvia, Liberia, Panama, and the UK.
At tomorrow’s meeting, Gagnon is expected to provide an update on the political, humanitarian, and human rights situation in the country, based on the Secretary-General’s latest report on the situation in Afghanistan and the activities of the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA), which was circulated to Council members on 9 September and covers developments since 22 May (S/2026/724).
The report highlights several mounting risks that could affect Afghanistan’s stability in the near and longer term. These include persistent human rights violations and lack of inclusive governance, mounting economic pressures and declining capacity to provide basic services, rising levels of involuntary returns of Afghan refugees and out-migration, and continuing concerns that terrorist groups may use Afghan territory as a safe haven. The report places particular emphasis on the increasingly systematic restrictions imposed on women and girls and the highly centralised and exclusionary nature of the political system.
On the security front, the report notes that armed opposition groups, which remained decentralised, fragmented, and largely locally focused, carried out limited attacks during the reporting period and did not significantly challenge the de facto authorities’ control. Between 1 May and 31 July, the UN recorded 2,947 safety- and security-related incidents across the country, including 64 that affected UNAMA personnel.
Meanwhile, cross-border hostilities between Afghanistan and Pakistan have continued, with reports of civilian casualties, displacement, and damage to critical infrastructure. On 28 July, UNAMA released an update documenting 399 civilian casualties in Afghanistan between 1 April and 30 June—57 killed and 342 injured—as a result of cross-border armed violence between the two countries, including 40 women and 112 children. According to the update, airstrikes and ground engagements were the leading causes of civilian harm, with all civilian casualties documented in Afghanistan attributed to Pakistani security forces.
Pakistan has linked its tensions with the Taliban de facto authorities to the alleged presence of terrorist groups in Afghanistan, particularly the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), which Islamabad claims plans and conducts attacks against Pakistani security forces from Afghan territory. The Taliban has rejected these claims as unfounded, accusing Pakistan of targeting civilian areas in Afghanistan and describing Islamabad’s actions as provocative.
Against this backdrop, the threat posed by terrorist groups operating in Afghanistan is expected to be raised by some Council members at tomorrow’s meeting. The 10 August report of the Monitoring Team assisting the 1267/1989/2253 Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL/Da’esh) and Al-Qaida Sanctions Committee assessed that the ability of numerous terrorist groups to operate in Afghanistan continued to pose a threat to neighbouring countries and the wider Central Asian region. It noted that Taliban counter-terrorism operations, concentrated primarily in northern Afghanistan and major cities, including Kabul, had diminished Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant-Khorasan (ISIL-K) capabilities, with attacks declining inside Afghanistan while increasing in Pakistan.
The Monitoring Team report also noted that the de facto authorities had relocated approximately 2,000 TTP fighters and their families away from areas along the Pakistani border to other parts of Afghanistan in an effort to constrain the group. It said that Taliban leader Hibatullah Akhundzada had reportedly conveyed warnings through back-channel communications that the TTP should halt attacks against Pakistan or risk losing Taliban support. The report also noted that Al-Qaida’s official media outlet had issued a statement supporting the Taliban and, for the first time, the TTP in operations against Pakistan.
Gagnon and several Council members may also raise concerns about the dire humanitarian situation in Afghanistan, where 13.8 million people are projected to face crisis or emergency levels of food insecurity. The Secretary-General’s UNAMA report describes humanitarian conditions as continuing to deteriorate amid multiple drivers of need, including large-scale returns from neighbouring countries, funding shortfalls, trade disruptions and climate-related shocks. During the reporting period, heavy rainfall and flash floods affected eastern, southeastern, and central Afghanistan, with significant humanitarian consequences across several provinces. At the time of writing, the UN’s 2026 Humanitarian Response Plan (HRP) for the country, requiring $1.71 billion, was only 31.2 percent funded.
The Secretary-General’s report also points to growing constraints on humanitarian operations stemming from regional instability and supply-chain disruptions. Aid organisations have increasingly turned to alternative routes, including the Lapis Lazuli corridor through Türkiye and onward to Europe, to facilitate the movement of essential supplies. During the reporting period, an arrangement between Afghanistan and Pakistan also enabled 687 trucks carrying humanitarian cargo to enter Afghanistan.
The human rights situation in Afghanistan is also likely to feature prominently in tomorrow’s meeting. Conditions remain particularly dire for women and girls, who continue to face severe restrictions on education, employment, freedom of movement, and participation in public life. The de facto authorities also continue to enforce the April 2023 ban on Afghan women working for the UN, alongside restrictions introduced in September 2025 preventing Afghan female UN personnel from accessing UN premises.
In a 7 September statement marking one year since the latter restrictions were imposed, Secretary-General António Guterres said that measures targeting women and girls continue to hinder Afghanistan’s economic development, stability, and reintegration into the international community, while also constraining the UN’s ability to deliver assistance. He called on the de facto authorities to reverse restrictions affecting Afghan women working for the UN and, more broadly, to lift measures limiting the rights and participation of women and girls in all aspects of Afghan society. Tomorrow, Gagnon and several members are likely to reiterate some of these messages.
On 28 August, China, the penholder on Afghanistan, convened an informal meeting at its mission to the UN in New York, at which Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Afghanistan and Head of UNAMA Rabab Fatima and UN Development Programme (UNDP) Administrator Alexander De Croo briefed Council members. Fatima, who was appointed to the position in July, apparently stressed the importance of finding ways to raise human rights concerns with the Taliban while keeping channels of dialogue open, underscoring that political engagement and attention to human rights are not mutually exclusive. It seems that Croo drew on a visit that he undertook together with UN High Commissioner for Refugees Barham Salih to Afghanistan in early July, highlighting the situation of returnees as one of the most pressing challenges facing the country amid a severe economic crisis and climate-related shocks. He apparently emphasised the need to address Afghanistan’s underlying development challenges and suggested that confidence-building measures could help create space for the international community to support greater economic resilience while maintaining engagement.
On 9 September, Denmark convened a closed-door informal meeting for Council members with Afghan female UN staff and Afghan women involved in humanitarian operations inside the country. Participants discussed the impact of restrictions imposed by the Taliban and broader limitations on their participation on the delivery of humanitarian assistance.
Longstanding divisions among Council members regarding Afghanistan are expected to be on display during tomorrow’s meeting. Some members, including France, the UK, and other like-minded states, have argued that the Taliban must adhere to international norms before Afghanistan can be reintegrated into the international community and receive economic and development aid. Some of these members prefer maintaining pressure on the Taliban, particularly regarding its policies and practices that violate the rights of women and girls. The US has similarly stressed that the Taliban must fulfil its counter-terrorism commitments, respect Afghanistan’s international obligations, cease abuses against women and girls, and end what it calls the practice of “hostage diplomacy”, whereby it detains American nationals in an attempt to compel policy concessions from the US.
China and Russia, for their part, have contended that the international community should provide economic and development assistance to Afghanistan without linking it to other issues, such as the rights of women and girls, and favour engagement and dialogue without increased pressure. Russia, for instance, has advocated for what it described as a pragmatic approach centred on maintaining all channels of engagement, which it argues is necessary to advance efforts towards a political settlement.
