Taliban rulers say they aren’t behind the threats and are investigating, in response to the United Nations.
Express loss of life threats have been made towards dozens of Afghan girls working for the United Nations in Afghanistan, in response to a brand new UN report, the place their rights have been severely curtailed because the Taliban returned to energy in 2021.
The UN mission to the nation mentioned feminine nationwide workers had been subjected to direct loss of life threats in Could, within the ETH replace on the human rights scenario in Afghanistan revealed on Sunday.
The report says the Taliban informed the UN mission that their cadres weren’t accountable for the threats, and an Inside Ministry investigation is beneath method.
The threats got here from unidentified people associated to their work with the UN Help Mission in Afghanistan, or UNAMA, different companies, funds, and programmes, “requiring the U.N. to implement interim measures to guard their security”, in response to the report.
Afghan authorities, together with the Taliban Inside Ministry, didn’t instantly reply to requests for touch upon the report or the investigation, in response to The Related Press information company.
The Taliban barred Afghan girls from working at home and overseas nongovernmental organisations in December 2022, extending this ban to the UN six months later. They then threatened to close down companies and teams nonetheless using girls. Assist companies and NGOs say the Taliban have disrupted or interfered with their operations, allegations denied by authorities.
The UN report is the primary official affirmation of loss of life threats towards Afghan girls working within the sector. The report additionally highlighted different areas affecting girls’s private freedoms and security, together with inspectors from the Vice and Advantage Ministry requiring girls to put on a chador, a full-body cloak protecting the top. Ladies have been arrested for under carrying the hijab.
Ladies have additionally been denied entry to public areas, in keeping with legal guidelines banning them from such areas.
A UN report from August 2024 discovered that Afghanistan’s Taliban authorities has “intentionally disadvantaged” at the very least 1.4 million ladies of their proper to an education throughout its three years in energy.
About 300,000 extra ladies are lacking out on faculty since UNESCO final carried out a rely in April 2023, it mentioned on Thursday, warning that “the way forward for a whole era is now in jeopardy.”
ICC targets Taliban for persecution of girls
The Worldwide Legal Courtroom (ICC) issued arrest warrants in July for 2 prime Taliban leaders in Afghanistan on costs of abuses towards girls and ladies.
ICC judges mentioned on the time there have been “cheap grounds” to suspect Taliban Supreme Chief Haibatullah Akhunzada and Chief Justice Abdul Hakim Haqqani of committing gender-based persecution.
“Whereas the Taliban have imposed sure guidelines and prohibitions on the inhabitants as an entire, they’ve particularly focused women and girls by cause of their gender, depriving them of elementary rights and freedoms,” the court docket mentioned in a press release in July.
The Taliban has “severely disadvantaged” women and girls of the rights to education, privateness, household life and the freedoms of motion, expression, thought, conscience and faith, ICC judges mentioned.
The Taliban has rejected the ICC warrants as “baseless rhetoric”, saying it doesn’t recognise the ICC’s authority, and underlined the court docket’s failure to guard the “tons of of girls and youngsters being killed every day” in Gaza.