Afghanistan

The United Kingdom set up a secret plan to resettle thousands of Afghans in Britain after an official accidentally disclosed the personal details of more than 33,000 people, putting them at risk of reprisals from the Taliban, court documents have showed.

The ICC said there were grounds to believe that supreme spiritual leader Haibatullah Akhundzada and Abdul Hakim Haqqani, chief justice of the Taliban, had committed the crime against humanity of persecution on gender grounds against girls, women and "other persons non-conforming" with the Taliban's policy on gender, gender identity or expression, a statement from the UN court said. 

The UN General Assembly on Monday overwhelmingly adopted a resolution expressing deep concern over Afghanistan’s deteriorating humanitarian, economic and human rights conditions, urging the Taliban to reverse repressive policies and ensure inclusive governance. 

Afghanistan’s government has said that Russia had become the first country to officially recognise its rule, calling it a “brave decision”. The announcement was made on Thursday after Afghanistan’s foreign minister, Amir Khan Muttaqi, met Russia’s ambassador to Afghanistan, Dmitry Zhirnov, in Kabul.

Russia has accepted the credentials of a new ambassador of Afghanistan as part of an ongoing drive to build friendly relations with the country’s Taliban authorities, which seized power as United States troops withdrew from the country four years ago.

[…] Roza Otunbayeva, Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Afghanistan and Head of the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA), detailed the Organization’s “Comprehensive Approach” in that country, which “does not seek to normalize the status quo, but rather ensure that multiple key issues of concern — in particular upholding the country’s international obligations — remain at the core of engagement efforts”, she said.

Zero women in national or local decision-making bodies. Zero girls projected to be in secondary education following a December 2024 ban. These numbers are part of the index released Tuesday by gender equality agency UN Women, which is the most comprehensive study on gender inequality in Afghanistan since the Taliban resumed de facto control in 2021.

Pakistan has become the fourth country to appoint an ambassador to Kabul, after China, UAE and Uzbekistan.

The US Department of Homeland Security on May 12 announced an end to temporary protections for some Afghans living in the United States citing improved security and economic conditions in Afghanistan. … According to the nonprofit AfghanEvac, some 11,000 Afghans are currently covered by TPS [temporary protected status] in the United States.

Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers have followed through on decrees aimed at erasing women from public life in the country and restricting their freedom of movement, the UN mission to the country (UNAMA) said in its latest human rights report published on Thursday covering the first quarter of 2025.