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Afghanistan: “Holding the Taliban Accountable” – Security Council Media Stakeout | United Nations
Summary
534seconds video
Azad Aras-Muhammad, a lawyer from Afghanistan and co-founder of the Hamdili campaign, addressed the Security Council urging the international community to hold the Taliban accountable for crimes against women, girls, and marginalized groups. Since 2021, the Taliban have implemented restrictive measures that severely limit women’s rights, including banning them from public life and silencing their voices. This is described as gender apartheid. The Taliban have dismantled human rights protections, leading to violence and persecution against those who resist. Despite ongoing atrocities, some international normalization of the Taliban has occurred, emboldening them and worsening conditions for Afghan women and girls. Aras-Muhammad called for urgent action, including renewing UN mandates and pursuing accountability through international courts. She criticized the international community for actions like recognizing Taliban-controlled embassies and excluding human rights concerns from discussions on Afghanistan’s future, which emboldens oppressive policies.
Full Script
Thank you so much, Ambassador. Good afternoon, everyone. My name is Azad Aras-Muhammad. I’m a lawyer from Afghanistan and also the co-founder of the Hamdili campaign. I’ll be briefing the Security Council today and to call on the international community to hold the Taliban accountable for grave international crimes, especially against women and girls, and marginalized groups. Since 2021, the Taliban have waged an unrelenting campaign to erase women and girls from public life. Through at least 126 degrees, they have stripped women and girls of their most fundamental rights. Women are suffocating inside their homes, banned from even looking outside their windows. Their voices are silenced, and their very existence is criminalized. This is a system of gender apartheid. The Taliban have dismantled every institution that once protected human rights, leaving women of Afghanistan with no accountability, no justice, and no future. Those who dare to resist the Taliban face brutal violence. Extradjudicial killings, torture, enforced disappearance, public execution are the price of defiance. And yet, despite these atrocities, there have been a growing normalization of the Taliban by the international community. This only emboldens the Taliban and worsens the condition for women and girls in Afghanistan. And still, as the woman of Afghanistan, we have not given up. We refuse to be erased, and we will not allow the world to look away. Today, I call on the Security Council to recognize the urgency of this moment and to take decisive action to protect the human rights of women and girls in Afghanistan. This requires renewing the mandate of Yunama and crucially ending the cycle of impunity that has allowed the Taliban to rule without consequences. Accountability can come through persecution of the International Criminal Court. Accountability can come through a case brought by the states at the International Court of Justice. And accountability can be brought through the recognition of gender apartheid as an international crime. Accountability is essential and must not be delayed. Thank you. Can we ask you? Hi. Hi. Can we have a photo? Hi, thank you. It’s Pamela Falk from US News and World Report. On the pleas that you said the international community is emboldening the Taliban by acknowledging them, what exactly do you mean and how to reverse that? Thank you. Thank you very much. I think by handing some of the missions have actually handed over the Afghanistan embassy to the Taliban. Some of the international meetings on the future, deciding the future of Afghanistan, does not include the human rights on the agenda and women’s rights on the agenda. And I think the unconditional support and humanitarian assistance to the Taliban is actually emboldening the system of gender apartheid and gender-based persecution in Afghanistan. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
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