MONITORING (SW) – The United Nations Human Rights Council held urgent debate on the plight of Afghan women at its 50th regular session in Geneva, Switzerland.
The international community must intensify pressure on the Taliban to respect women’s rights and provide all necessary resources and support to women’s rights activists and organizations from the country, said Richard Bennett, UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Afghanistan.
“We are at a crucial moment in time, with the fate of the Afghanistan’s women & girls hanging in the balance,” UN Human Rights chief Michelle Bachelet told the Human Rights Council at an urgent debate.
France and the European Union have sent a letter to the President of the UN Human Rights Council saying that the “significant deterioration” in the human rights situation of women and girls in Afghanistan from August 2021 onwards requires “urgent attention” by the Council.
Earlier, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights called the situation of women in Afghanistan critical and warned that they were facing “systematic repression”.
After the establishment of the Islamic Emirate, many restrictions were imposed on women and girls and they were deprived of their basic rights in Afghanistan.
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