Afghanistan Archives - Page 2 of 4

Afghanistan: WFP forced to cut food aid for 2 million more

·September 5, 2023·2 min read

Forced to take the drastic measures citing a “massive funding shortfall”, WFP will only be able to provide emergency assistance to three million people per month across the country from October. “Amid already worrying levels of hunger and malnutrition, we are obliged to choose between the hungry and the starving, leaving millions...

INTERVIEW: Building bridges between Afghanistan and the world because ‘isolation is not an option’

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·July 4, 2023·7 min read

Since then, as international funding has stalled amid skepticism about the Taliban’s return, the UN has been acting as the world’s “eyes and ears” in Afghanistan. After shifting mainly to humanitarian work, UN agencies and partners are finding ways to help the long-suffering population meet basic needs and preserve hard-won...

Afghanistan mission chief to Taliban: Bans on women and girls cost you legitimacy at home and abroad

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·June 21, 2023·2 min read

UN Special Representative Roza Otunbayeva was briefing the Security Council on the dire situation facing the country and the international aid effort, with UN women workers among those now prevented by Taliban edicts from working. “We will not put our national staff in danger and therefore we are asking them not...

Afghanistan: Rights experts alarmed over Taliban use of ‘brutal’ punishments

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·May 11, 2023·1 min read

The urgent call from the ten Special Rapporteurs and members of the Working Group on discrimination against women and girls, came in response to an announcement by the Taliban-appointed Supreme Court in favour of punishments including stoning, flogging and burying people under a wall. Women most vulnerable The de facto...

Locust outbreak in Afghanistan threatens wheat harvest

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·May 11, 2023·3 min read

The UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) sounded the alarm on Wednesday after locusts were spotted in the country’s north and northeast. FAO said that a “full outbreak” this year could destroy up to 1.2 million metric tonnes of wheat, or a quarter of the total annual harvest. FAO Representative...

UN calls on Taliban to end corporal punishment in Afghanistan

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·May 9, 2023·1 min read

“Corporal punishment is a violation of the Convention against Torture and must cease,” said UNAMA’s human rights chief Fiona Frazer, stressing that the UN is “strongly opposed” to the death penalty. She called on the de facto authorities to establish an “immediate moratorium” on executions. Flogging and stoning In a...

Afghanistan: Women tell UN rights experts ‘we’re alive, but not living’

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·May 5, 2023·3 min read

“We are alarmed about widespread mental health issues and accounts of escalating suicides among women and girls,” they said in a joint statement. “This extreme situation of institutionalized gender-based discrimination in Afghanistan is unparalleled anywhere in the world.” ‘Extreme’ discrimination Since the Taliban seized power in Afghanistan in 2021, de...

Afghanistan: Guterres says women worker ban ‘unacceptable and puts lives in jeopardy’

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·May 3, 2023·2 min read

Secretary-General António Guterres was speaking to reporters in Doha, Qatar, after convening an international meeting of Special Envoys on Afghanistan. He said they had agreed on the need for a “strategy of engagement” with the Taliban, to help the country’s most vulnerable people. No question of Taliban recognition Mr. Guterres made clear that...

Guterres convenes meeting in Doha to discuss key issues in Afghanistan

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·May 1, 2023·1 min read

The aim is to reinvigorate international engagement around key issues, such as human rights, in particular women’s and girls’ rights, inclusive governance, countering terrorism and drug trafficking. “The meeting is intended to achieve a common understanding within the international community on how to engage with the Taliban on these issues,”...

Afghanistan: UN predicts restrictions on women’s rights will worsen economic catastrophe

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·April 24, 2023·3 min read

The Afghanistan Socio-Economic Outlook 2023, released by the UN Development Programme (UNDP), provides an overview of the fallout resulting from the takeover of Afghanistan by its present-day de facto rulers, the Taliban, in August 2021. Immediately after the Taliban assumed power, the Afghan economy collapsed, accelerating Afghanistan’s decade-long slide into...

‘The world cannot abandon the people’: Top humanitarian official in Afghanistan

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·April 7, 2023·3 min read

Dr. Ramiz Alakbarov, UN Humanitarian Coordinator for Afghanistan, said that amid severe underfunding, the move would “further undermine humanitarian partners’ ability to support the population, especially the most vulnerable such as women and girls”. “The world cannot abandon the people of Afghanistan at this precarious moment,” Dr. Alakbarov insisted, before...

Afghanistan: OHCHR alarm over arrests of activists speaking up for women and girls

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·March 30, 2023·1 min read

Since the beginning of the year, several civil society activists and journalists have been detained for speaking out against Taliban policies that restrict women and girls’ access to education, work, and most other areas of public life. “No one should be detained for speaking out in defence of their fundamental...