Afghanistan

 The World Bank Group said on Thursday its executive board endorsed a new approach to aiding Afghanistan that will deploy some $300 million from the bank's International Development Association fund for poor countries through United Nations agencies and other international organizations.

A Chinese energy company’s investment of $49 million in Afghanistan’s oil production has helped boost the country's daily crude oil output to more than 1,100 metric tons, but the funding is just one-third of what Beijing originally pledged. … Facing international sanctions and isolation, the Taliban have actively sought Chinese investments and engagement in Afghanistan.

Afghanistan’s fundamentalist Taliban hosted their first international meeting Monday since returning to power in Kabul, saying it is aimed at promoting economic connectivity and cooperation with regional countries on “common challenges”.

Hundreds of Afghan women were forced to quit their jobs or have been arrested and denied access to essential services in the last quarter of 2023, a UN report revealed on Monday, as Taliban officials continue undermining their basic human rights.

The United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) is deeply concerned over recent arbitrary arrests and detentions of women and girls by Afghanistan’s de facto authorities because of alleged non-compliance with the Islamic dress code.

Afghanistan's Taliban authorities Saturday criticized the United Nations Security Council's plan for a special envoy to promote gender and human rights in the country as "unnecessary."

Lack of progress in resolving human rights issues is a key factor behind the current impasse between Afghanistan and the international community, the UN Special Representative for the country said on Wednesday in a briefing to the Security Council in New York. 

[…] The 15-member body unanimously adopted resolution 2716 (2023) (to be issued as document S/RES/2716(2023)), directing the Monitoring Team to support the Committee established by resolution 1988 (2011), designating sanctions on individuals, groups, undertakings and entities found to be part of and linked to the Taliban. 

Taliban officials are sending Afghan women to prison to protect them from gender-based violence, according to a UN report published Thursday. Before the Taliban seized power in 2021, there were 23 state-sponsored women protection centers in Afghanistan where survivors of gender-based violence could seek refuge. Now there are none, the UN report said.

Afghanistan is a "forever emergency" rendered worse by an isolated country intent on dismantling human rights, says UN refugee agency (UNHCR) representative for the country, Leonard Zulu.