The Human Rights Council has renewed the mandate of the Special Rapporteur on Afghanistan for another year, maintaining dedicated scrutiny of the rights of women and girls. ISHR welcomes the renewal and calls on States to make sure the new Independent Investigative Mechanism for Afghanistan is up and running without delay.
On 5 October 2026, the Council adopted resolution A/HRC/63/L.8 without a vote, extending the mandate currently held by Richard Bennett. Ahead of the session, ISHR joined Afghan and international organisations in a joint letter urging States to keep dedicated reporting and an enhanced interactive dialogue on the rights of women and girls, renew the mandate and press for the swift operationalisation of the Independent Investigative Mechanism for Afghanistan. The resolution delivers on these calls. It also asks the Special Rapporteur to include a study on the situation of minorities in Afghanistan in his report to the Council in September 2027, which he will then present to the General Assembly with an oral update. OHCHR is asked to present a report on the impact of the Taliban’s dismantling of Afghanistan’s legal and judicial framework to the Council in March 2027.
ISHR particularly welcomes that the resolution maintains a dedicated space for debate on the situation of women and girls, with an enhanced interactive dialogue at the Council’s June 2027 session. The Special Rapporteur and other experts have described the Taliban’s system of discrimination and oppression against women as gender apartheid, and the dialogue is an important safeguard against its normalisation.
‘As the Taliban continue to entrench this system, the dialogue remains essential. It gives women from Afghanistan a platform to speak directly to the Council and the international community, and keeps them at the centre of discussions about their rights’, said ISHR’s Programme Director and Legal Counsel, Tess McEvoy.
The Council created the Independent Investigative Mechanism for Afghanistan in October 2025, following sustained advocacy by Afghan women human rights defenders, ISHR and partners. The new resolution asks the Secretary-General to staff it ‘as expeditiously as possible’. As civil society stressed in its HRC63 takeaways, States must ensure the mechanism is fully operationalised and given the resources it needs.
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