In a statement agreed by consensus, the 15-member council said the ban on women and girls from attending secondary school and universities in Afghanistan “constitutes a growing erosion of respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms”.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said on Twitter on Tuesday that the restrictions “constitute unjustified human rights violations and must be lifted”. He added: “Actions to exclude and silence women and girls continue to cause enormous suffering and great setbacks to the potential of the Afghan people.”
The ban on women in college was announced last week at the Security Council meeting in New York on Afghanistan. Girls have been banned from high school since March.
The council said a ban on female humanitarian aid workers, announced on Saturday, would have “a significant and immediate impact on humanitarian operations in the country,” including those of the United Nations.
“These restrictions contradict the Taliban’s commitments to the Afghan people and the expectations of the international community,” said the Security Council, which also expressed its full support for the UN’s political mission in Afghanistan, known as UNAMA.
Four major global aid agencies, whose humanitarian efforts have reached millions of Afghans, said on Sunday they were suspending operations because they could not run their programs without female personnel.
UN aid chief Martin Griffiths told the Security Council last week that 97% of Afghans live in poverty, that two-thirds of the population needs help to survive, that 20 million people are acutely hungry and that 1.1 million teenage girls are out of school. have been sent.
The Islamist Taliban seized power in August last year. When they were last in power 20 years ago, they had largely banned girls’ education, but said their policies had changed. The Taliban-led government is not recognized internationally.
(REUTERS)
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