During an Enhanced Interactive Dialogue with the Special Rapporteur on Afghanistan on 19 June, in which he presented his most recent report to the UN Human Rights Council, ISHR made a statement noting that the pursuit of justice for women and girls in Afghanistan demands a multifaceted approach including various accountability mechanisms.
Farukhleqa is a woman human rights defender from Afghanistan. She has been working for the promotion and protection of women's right for almost 20 years and is currently actively opposing gender apartheid in Afghanistan.
Tamana is a human rights and women’s rights activist who leads in Germany the campaign to 'End Gender Apartheid in Afghanistan. In an interview with ISHR, she tells us a little more about her work and vision for Afghan women.
Elham Kohistani is a human rights defender from Afghanistan. Having witnessed successive governments trample human rights in her country since her childhood, she has dedicated her life to fighting for the basic rights of women and girls.
'Since the Taliban came to power, Afghanistan [has become] the only country where we see that women don’t have any kind of rights.'
Nazifa Jalali, along with ISHR, called on UN Member States to establish a mandated investigative mechanism to contribute towards accountability for the Taliban's human rights violations, and for States to continue to support Afghanistan’s human rights movement.
In a joint submission for the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) of Afghanistan, ISHR and the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF) draw urgent attention to the ongoing gender persecution in Afghanistan by the Taliban, and the institutionalised framework of gender apartheid.
Next week, the Human Rights Council will seek to adopt a resolution on the human rights situation in Afghanistan. The context in which this takes place is of deep financial, humanitarian and human rights crises in the country, but also of political negligence by the international community.
A joint report by the Special Rapporteur on the human rights situation in Afghanistan and the Working Group on Discrimination against Women in law and practice found that grave, systematic and institutionalised discrimination against women and girls is at the heart of Taliban ideology and rule.
Civil society groups have welcomed the extension of the mandate of the Special Rapporteur on the human rights situation in Afghanistan, for an additional year. The mandate of the Special Rapporteur remains crucial for ongoing monitoring and documentation of the situation in the country.
