Afghanistan

Afghanistan's Taliban rulers have announced that they are cutting ties with 14 Afghan diplomatic missions abroad and will cease to accept consular documents issued by those missions, in a move likely to cause further difficulties for Afghan citizens living abroad.

The third round of U.N.-led talks to explore engagement with Afghanistan ended Monday without the Taliban making any reform pledges or winning concessions from the international community.

The United Nations confirmed Friday that a rare meeting of global envoys with Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers this month will not address concerns about Afghan civil society and women human rights defenders. … The two-day U.N.-hosted meeting will commence in Doha, Qatar, on June 30. It will be the third session of what is referred to as the “Doha process,” and the Taliban have agreed to attend for the first time.

A quarterly report on the situation in Afghanistan by the United Nations has documented a surge in attacks by armed groups fighting Taliban rule. It also noted “persistent” internal tensions among de facto Afghan leaders. … The report stated that the armed opposition “did not pose a significant challenge” to the Taliban’s hold on territorial control since they regained power in August 2021.

The systemic oppression against Afghan women and girls is “so severe and extensive that they appear to form a widespread and systematic attack” which could amount to crimes against humanity said Richard Bennett, the independent rights expert monitoring Afghanistan, addressing the UN Human Rights Council on Tuesday. 

Since banning all political parties last year, the Taliban has targeted two of its major former rivals. It shut down two Kabul-based TV stations owned by the Hezb-e Islami and Jamiat-e Islami parties, respectively. Now, the extremist group has cracked down on Harakat-e Islami Afghanistan, closing a TV station as well as a university and seminary accused of having links with the Shi’ite political party.

As the United Nations and the Taliban prepare to discuss Afghanistan in Doha, Qatar, on June 30, a New York-based global women's rights advocacy nongovernmental organization has urged the U.N. to demand the Taliban ensure full and equal participation of Afghan women, peacebuilders and human rights defenders in all discussions about Afghanistan's future. 

Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers stated their intention Wednesday to join a United Nations-organized meeting in Doha on June 30 that aims to facilitate and coordinate the world’s engagement with the country hit by a multitude of crises. 

The international community cannot abandon Afghanistan, a senior UN aid official said on Thursday, urging continued engagement and support for the population. Afghanistan is “not a hopeless crisis,” Edem Wosornu of the UN humanitarian affairs office, OCHA, told journalists in New York, following a recent visit to the country, Pakistan and war-wracked Sudan. 

The humanitarian situation in Afghanistan is gravely deteriorating, and a new approach is urgently needed. Without a radical rethink of approaches to humanitarian aid, the root causes of the crisis cannot be tackled sustainably. Time and funding are running out. The International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) and the Afghan Red Crescent Society are calling for an urgent strategic reset in humanitarian approaches to Afghanistan.