YouSaid · the spoken record

Otunbayeva

lines on the record: 70
first: 2022-12-20
most recent: 2023-12-20
sittings or episodes: 5
sources: un-security-council

Every line below is reproduced as it was said and linked to the record it came from. Nothing here is summarised or generated. Directory · Search · Corrections

“Technical assistance is required at the working level to the de facto ministries delivering services in those areas. For their part, the de facto authorities need to understand the value of the multilateral offer that has been put before them by the Special Coordinator. It elevates the issue of Afghanistan at a time when other issues are filling the international agenda and clarifies a pathway to finally resolving Afghanistan’s relationship with the international community. Compromises, however, will be required from all sides. I will continue to make every effort, with all the resources that I have, to encourage stakeholders towards the arena where compromises can be made.”
2023-12-20 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9515 (2023) · source
“One lesson, I believe, is that there has simply not been enough of it. There must be more direct engagement with the de facto authorities, including in Kabul. I am very grateful to the Organization of Islamic Cooperation for organizing the seminal International Conference on Women in Islam, held in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, last month. The demonstration of unity from the Islamic world on women’s rights was essential. That demonstration will surely have a cumulative positive effect over time. Notwithstanding the impasse on women’s rights, UNAMA has had certain successful interactions in the areas of climate, microfinance, counter-narcotics and drug addiction, demining, private-sector development, human rights and governance. Those are areas that directly affect the lives of millions of Afghans.”
2023-12-20 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9515 (2023) · source
“They continue to maintain that the ban on girls’ education and women working are internal matters, despite their contravention of current treaty obligations. That approach, I fear, will prolong the impasse that the assessment is intended to resolve. Our future approach must be guided, I believe, by two factors. First, there must be a durable and more detailed international consensus on Afghanistan. I hope that we can achieve that at the next planned special envoys meeting. Secondly, we must make far greater use of the de facto authorities’ willingness to engage in dialogue with members of the international community. Dialogue does not legitimize. It can be used to express disapproval, yet encourage change. We have often spoken of the need to learn lessons from our engagement since August 2021.”
2023-12-20 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9515 (2023) · source
“It has provided needed clarity on a number of issues, backing up UNAMA’s assessments. Most importantly, it provides a clearly articulated endpoint — an Afghan State fully reintegrated within the international system, without going through a further cycle of violence, and in accordance with international law. There is something in the report for each stakeholder to dislike, but I have urged all of them to focus on the larger objective. In that regard, we noted that the de facto authorities deemed the appointment of a special envoy to be unacceptable. The de facto Minister for Foreign Affairs explained that the long history of United Nations special envoys in Afghanistan was not positive. In general, the de facto authorities’ response to the report indicates a preference for bilateral approaches rather than multilateral ones.”
2023-12-20 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9515 (2023) · source
“I urge all of us to find ways of including Afghanistan in future meetings on climate change. Another area in which there is great scope for cooperation is on counter-narcotics. As the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime has reported, the de facto authorities successfully reduced the cultivation of opium by 95 per cent, addressing a long-standing international concern. In Kabul, I created a working group of ambassadors based there to organize an international response to provide assistance to affected farmers and to drug addicts. We need, however, greater international attention and focus on the issue from donors and the region. I would now like to address the report of the Special Coordinator, Ambassador Sinirlioğlu, and UNAMA’s thoughts on the way forward. I welcome the independent assessment.”
2023-12-20 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9515 (2023) · source
“I continue to believe that the de facto authorities must be part of this global conversation. Addressing Afghanistan’s climate crisis should transcend politics. The lack of water from recurring drought has reached a level of urgency that is felt across the country — from rural districts, in which people abandon their fields for lack of irrigation water to the national capital, the aquifers of which are mostly dry, leaving millions without safe drinking water. Afghans cannot address the enormity of this challenge alone, and its impacts will not be contained within Afghanistan’s borders. The de facto authorities have demonstrated a desire to engage with the international community on this issue. They accept their responsibilities in addressing it, including honouring Afghanistan’s commitments to the UNFCCC and the Paris Agreement.”
2023-12-20 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9515 (2023) · source
“Failure to provide a sufficiently modern curriculum with equality of access for girls and boys alike will make it impossible to implement the de facto authorities’ own agenda of economic self-sufficiency. In my previous briefing (see S/PV.9423), I referred to the deepening problem of climate change in Afghanistan. Since then, the twenty-eighth session of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) took place in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. UNAMA had strived to arrange the participation of a technical delegation from Afghanistan. We were unable to, owing to complications of accreditation. Afghanistan is one of the countries most affected by climate change in the world, while it has contributed least to its causes.”
2023-12-20 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9515 (2023) · source
“The international community has rightly focused on the need to reverse the ban on girls’ education, but the deteriorating quality of education, and access to it, is affecting boys as well. We are receiving more and more anecdotal evidence that girls of all ages can study at madrasas. It is not entirely clear, however, what constitutes a madrasa, if there is a standardized curriculum that allows modern education subjects, and how many girls are able to study in madrasas. The de facto Ministry of Education is reportedly undertaking an assessment of these schools, as well as a review of the public-school curriculum. The de facto educational authorities continue to tell us that they are working on creating conditions to allow girls to return to school. But time is passing while a generation of girls is falling behind.”
2023-12-20 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9515 (2023) · source
“It is essential that both sides take measures to prevent further deterioration and begin working on issues of common interest. I have conveyed this to Kabul and Islamabad. Nearly half a million Afghans have returned at the onset of winter. I have been to the border, where a consortium of humanitarian actors are working constantly, alongside the de facto authorities, to provide assistance. This has proven to be an effective cooperation, and the de facto authorities have responded with great professionalism, despite lacking resources. The returnees are the poorest of the poor — 80,000 of them have nowhere in Afghanistan to go. The human rights consequences for women and girls forced to return are particularly severe. The quality of education in Afghanistan is a growing concern.”
2023-12-20 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9515 (2023) · source
“In particular, Pakistan remains convinced that the de facto authorities have done too little to contain the Tehrik-e Taliban Pakistan, which has claimed major recent terrorist attacks inside Pakistan. Last week, I visited Islamabad and raised there the issue of the expulsion of undocumented Afghans living in Pakistan. Many of these Afghans had fled after the collapse of the republic. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees issued a “no return advisory” for Afghanistan in August 2021 and renewed it in February 2023, citing the humanitarian and human rights situation in Afghanistan. This applies to all Afghans, regardless of their legal status. The policy and the reasons for it have led to a deterioration of relations between the two countries.”
2023-12-20 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9515 (2023) · source
“Unexploded ordnance remains a significant concern in Afghanistan, especially for children. Relations between the de facto Directorate of Mine Action Coordination and the United Nations have improved, and the suspension limiting any form of cooperation was lifted in October. The Shia community remains at disproportionate risk of harm. Three recent attacks against Shia communities, killing 39 people, were documented in the period covered by the Secretary-General’s most recent report (S/2023/941). All these attacks were claimed by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant–Khorasan Province. Three further targeted attacks on Shia clerics in Herat killed nine members of the Shia community. At the same time, the countries of the region remain deeply concerned about additional possible threats emanating from inside Afghanistan.”
2023-12-20 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9515 (2023) · source
“Dialogue and direction are furthered through the findings and recommendations of the UNAMA human rights reports, the most recent of which details how the de facto authorities respond to complaints of gender-based violence against women and girls. The humanitarian situation remains of grave concern. We are entering another winter, in which more than 20 million people will depend on aid. Given this year’s drop in funding and, by extension, provision of assistance, many needy Afghans will be more vulnerable than they were this time last year. The representative of the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs will provide a separate briefing with greater detail, but I wanted to use my voice to stress the urgency of this issue. The de facto authorities continue to maintain a generally good level of security.”
2023-12-20 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9515 (2023) · source
“Accepting and working to uphold international norms and standards, as set out in the United Nations treaties that Afghanistan has ratified, will continue to be a non-negotiable condition for a seat at the United Nations, as the Special Coordinator made clear and as we continually remind our interlocutors in Afghanistan. UNAMA has a dialogue on human rights with the de facto authorities. In some areas there are openings, such as on the treatment of detainees. We see that many of the de facto authorities are open to further engagement with UNAMA and to seeking an awareness of human rights standards.”
2023-12-20 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9515 (2023) · source
“But the key features of the human rights situation in Afghanistan today are a record of systemic discrimination against women and girls, repression of political dissent and free speech, a lack of meaningful representation of minorities and ongoing instances of extrajudicial killing, arbitrary arrests and detentions, torture and ill-treatment. Despite the recent release of two women activists, a number of human right defenders and media workers continue to be arbitrarily detained. The lack of progress in resolving human rights issues is a key factor behind the current impasse.”
2023-12-20 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9515 (2023) · source
“Ms. Otunbayeva: I am aware that the Security Council has already considered the situation in Afghanistan several times over the past month, including on the situation of women and on the independent assessment prepared by Ambassador Sinirlioğlu (S/2023/856, annex). In a world of multiplying crises, I am grateful for this ongoing attention to Afghanistan. Many Afghans inform me that they fear being forgotten, as they have been in the past. I strongly believe that my role, and that of the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA), is to prevent that from happening. We have just celebrated the seventy-fifth anniversary of the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights by the General Assembly on 10 December 1948. Afghanistan was an original signatory to the Declaration.”
2023-12-20 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9515 (2023) · source
“They should be able to contribute to the full potential of a peaceful Afghanistan that is not isolated from the world community.”
2023-09-26 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9423 (2023) · source
“And it should include an intra-Afghan dialogue of the sort that was interrupted when the Taliban took power in August 2021. Such an engagement would also require a more coordinated position of the international community. We look forward to the report of the United Nations Special Coordinator for Afghanistan and his observations on that and other issues. The lack of trust on all sides is a serious impediment to building confidence but the doors to dialogue are still open. Afghanistan has been a country in conflict for nearly half a century. This moment, despite its problems, is an opportunity. We must ensure that the doors to dialogue are not shut. After all, today in Afghanistan hundreds of girls will be born. They should not be born into poverty, exclusion, discrimination or hopelessness.”
2023-09-26 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9423 (2023) · source
“UNAMA’s view is that we must continue to engage and to maintain a dialogue. Dialogue is not recognition. Engagement is not acceptance of those policies. On the contrary, dialogue and engagement are how we are attempting to change those policies. The goal of our engagement continues to be to promote governance practices that reflect international norms, as well as Afghanistan’s cultural and religious heritage. That engagement could benefit from being more structured and purposeful while remaining principled. A reframed engagement strategy must first acknowledge that the de facto authority bears responsibility for the well-being of the Afghan people in all dimensions but especially concerning women. A reframed engagement strategy must also have mechanisms to address the de facto authorities’ long-standing concerns.”
2023-09-26 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9423 (2023) · source
“UNAMA, in conjunction with UN-Women and the International Organization for Migration, has just published its fourth quarterly report on the situation of Afghan women based on more than 500 interviews. Among other findings, 46 per cent of women stated that the Taliban should not be recognized under any circumstances. That further undermines the de facto authorities’ claim to domestic legitimacy. The policies that drive the exclusion of women are unacceptable to the international community. We all recognize that, especially myself, as a woman from the region, who has to deal each day with the ongoing effects of the ban on Afghan women, including those banned from working from our premises. The question, however, is whether to continue engaging with the de facto authorities despite those policies or to cease engaging because of them.”
2023-09-26 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9423 (2023) · source
“But I am increasingly concerned about what can be described only as a lack of positive direction in our engagement. If that drift continues, we will neither be able to address the concerns of the international community, nor the de facto Administration, nor above all the significant needs of the Afghan people. It is well known that our engagement strategy has been significantly undermined by the more than 50 decrees the Taliban have issued aimed at eliminating women from public life and education. The two speakers after me, UN-Women Executive Director Sima Bahous and Ms. Karima Bennoune, will speak in far greater detail on the devastating effects that those edicts have on the lives of Afghanistan’s women.”
2023-09-26 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9423 (2023) · source
“We urge donors to consider funding basic human needs assistance in line with the United Nations Strategic Framework for Afghanistan with a view to sustaining essential services, strengthening livelihoods and promoting community resilience to benefit the most vulnerable, including women, displaced people and returnees. Since 2022, the Council has mandated UNAMA to carry out an engagement strategy that seeks to moderate the policies of the de facto authorities and bring Afghanistan into convergence with international norms. On the ground, the de facto authorities with whom we are in constant contact demonstrate an openness to continue that engagement, even as we continue to disagree profoundly — and to express those disagreements in our meetings — on issues such as the rights of women and girls and the need for more inclusive governance.”
2023-09-26 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9423 (2023) · source
“In the meantime, we are greatly concerned by the humanitarian funding gap. As of one week ago, the Afghanistan humanitarian response plan had received $872 million, approximately 28 per cent of the $3.2 billion requested. Many programmes have already closed owing to insufficient funding just as winter is fast approaching and lives are most at risk. That means that 15.2 million Afghans now facing acute food insecurity could be pushed towards famine in the coming months. I urge donors to heed our humanitarian appeal with as much generosity as possible before winter comes. More sustainable and cost-effective means of providing assistance are also required.”
2023-09-26 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9423 (2023) · source
“And there cannot be international legitimacy without domestic legitimacy. On a positive note, there is growing evidence that the de facto authorities have significantly reduced the cultivation of poppy in Afghanistan. The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime will report on that in greater detail in October. The world can benefit from that decision, which has affected the livelihoods of thousands of Afghan farmers. UNAMA has established in Kabul a working group of countries that are coordinating their efforts to provide specific assistance to those farmers, as well as to the millions of Afghans who have become addicts as a result of the demand for those drugs in faraway countries. Today in Istanbul donors are meeting on Afghanistan. We will reiterate our requests to provide enhanced assistance to those communities.”
2023-09-26 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9423 (2023) · source
“It is too early to judge those institutions — whether they are instruments of accountability and consultation or of control. We are concerned that the recently created Provincial Ulama Council for the predominantly Shia provinces of Bamyan and Daikundi has no Shia members. At the end of this month there will be a Moscow format meeting in Kazan, Russia, which will focus on inclusive Government. The de facto authorities will send a delegation headed by the de facto Foreign Minister. Despite insistence by the de facto authorities that their institutions are inclusive, there appears to be a growing legitimacy gap with the people. The lack of certainty regarding rights, accountability, representation and recourse to justice remains a significant obstacle to internal legitimacy.”
2023-09-26 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9423 (2023) · source
“The delegation of ulama focused on girls’ education, women’s rights and the need for inclusive governance, stressing that those are integral to Islamic governance around the world. We urge that such visits continue. They are part of a vital conversation between the de facto authorities and the international community, helpfully mediated by the Islamic world. At the subnational level, UNAMA has documented many instances of consultations between the de facto authorities and local communities. Those consultations are both through institutions and ad hoc. Very recently, provincial ulama councils composed of religious clerics and tribal elders have been created in all 34 of Afghanistan’s provinces. Those Councils are intended to provide accountability and listen to local grievances, but they also report directly to the Taliban leader.”
2023-09-26 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9423 (2023) · source
“I acknowledge the cooperative responses of the de facto authorities through the de facto Ministry for Foreign Affairs to our reports before they were published. Their written responses can be found annexed to each of the reports. UNAMA’s human rights efforts are focused on engaging with the de facto authorities and enabling them to establish an inclusive, responsive system of governance, including policing, that respects human rights norms and standards. It is time to support strengthened engagement with the relevant components of the de facto authorities through appropriate means to increase their knowledge and further compliance of law enforcement actions with international norms. In that regard, we welcome the recent visit of a group of distinguished Islamic scholars from States members of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation.”
2023-09-26 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9423 (2023) · source
“With regard to human rights, since my previous briefing (see S/PV.9354), UNAMA has issued three human rights reports: first, on the impact of improvised explosive devices on civilians; secondly, on violations of the de facto authorities’ own declared amnesty regarding former government officials and former members of the armed forces; and thirdly, on the treatment of detainees. Those reports have documented human rights violations by the de facto authorities in contravention of international law. In many cases, they are violations of the Taliban leader’s own instructions, for example, on the prohibition of torture and ill- treatment. Such violations create fear and distrust that undermine the claims to domestic legitimacy by the de facto authorities.”
2023-09-26 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9423 (2023) · source
“Afghan communities, to take the latter example, are being ravaged by the effects of three years of drought. In a country where nearly 80 per cent of the population depends on agriculture, climate change and the lack of water are having devastating effects on people’s lives. Afghans in water-scarce areas say that if they do not have water, everything else is secondary. A de facto provincial governor referred to what he has termed “upside-down migration”, whereby families who have everything but water migrate to where they have nothing but water.”
2023-09-26 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9423 (2023) · source
“Ms. Otunbayeva: When former Secretary-General Kofi Annan was given the Nobel Peace Prize in December 2001, he began his address with the words “Today in Afghanistan, a girl will be born.” Who is she now? Is she a university student forced into exile in order to continue her education? Is she a qualified professional who a few months ago had a career, but is now confined to her home? Or is she like the young woman that a United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) team met in south-western Afghanistan recently: the daughter of a widowed mother, a girl who had never gone to school because of the conflict and whose main concern every day is finding enough water for her family? Those brief examples describe the dilemmas and complexities in Afghanistan today. There are no easy answers.”
2023-09-26 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9423 (2023) · source
“Despite the problems I mentioned, we have established reliable and effective working channels of communication with the de facto authorities, and we have identified, as I described, greater opportunities for cooperation that could build mutual understanding and improve the lives of the Afghan people. We have a mandate to engage on the Security Council’s behalf, and we will continue to do so. We could do much more, however, if the Taliban were to rescind its punishing restrictions on its female population.”
2023-06-21 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9354 (2023) · source
“Despite the bans, I believe that the international community can do more to ensure the future stability of the Afghan economy in a way that directly improves the lives of Afghans. That is particularly important in the light of a likely significant decline in funding for the humanitarian response this year. I welcome the visit now being undertaken by the Special Coordinator, Mr. Feridun Sinirlioğlu, who is currently in Afghanistan. We look forward to his recommendations. I would also like to highlight the importance of continuing the momentum established at Doha in May by holding a subsequent meeting in the same format before the end of the year. We have begun consultations on the timing and content of that meeting.”
2023-06-21 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9354 (2023) · source
“In my regular discussions with the de facto authorities, I am blunt about the obstacles they have created for themselves by the decrees and restrictions they have enacted, in particular against women and girls. We have conveyed to them that, as long as those decrees are in place, it is nearly impossible that their Government will be recognized by members of the international community. Based on our discussions with many interlocutors across the country, it is also clear that the decrees are highly unpopular among the Afghan population. They cost the Taliban both domestic and international legitimacy, while inflicting suffering on half of their population and damaging their economy.”
2023-06-21 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9354 (2023) · source
“Discussions continue with the de facto authorities to lift the suspension as soon as possible and enable us to provide full support within our mandate to that vital sector. Finally, we are greatly concerned by Afghanistan’s vulnerability to climate change. Years of drought have compounded the effects of conflict and poverty. Climate change is fostering population displacements inside Afghanistan that could be destabilizing. In order to address Afghanistan’s lack of water and consequent food insecurity, the de facto authorities have begun to dig a canal that will divert water from the northern Amu Darya River, raising concerns among neighbouring countries. Overall, the need to mitigate the effects of climate change requires a more specific dialogue between the de facto authorities and the international community.”
2023-06-21 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9354 (2023) · source
“The report contains information on other terrorist groups operating in Afghanistan and their relationships with the de facto authorities. We note the report’s observation that the existing sanctions procedures are obsolete and should be updated to reflect the realities in Afghanistan today. While the end of the armed conflict has greatly reduced the number of civilian casualties since the Taliban came to power, the United Nations Mine Action Service in Afghanistan estimates there to be approximately 100 casualties per month from unexploded ordinance. Unfortunately, the de facto Directorate of Mine Action Coordination has suspended its cooperation with the United Nations for technical reasons, which we are trying to resolve. Without United Nations support, the sector operates with limited technical capacity and monitoring.”
2023-06-21 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9354 (2023) · source
“The de facto authorities are making concerted efforts to counter the Islamic State-Khorasan Province (ISIL- KP). Despite that, attacks targeting both the de facto authorities and the civilian population have taken place. Most recently, in Badakhshan on 6 and 8 June, two attacks targeting the de facto authorities killed or wounded at least 63 people, including 14 killed and 49 wounded, the majority of whom were civilians. ISIL-KP claimed both attacks. Indiscriminate attacks by ISIL- KP, such as the use of improvised explosive devices in populated areas and attacks deliberately targeting civilians, constitute serious violations of international law and must cease. We have taken note of the recent annual report (see S/2023/370) by the Analytical Support and Sanctions Monitoring Team.”
2023-06-21 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9354 (2023) · source
“The composition of the de facto Government is entirely male, and almost totally derived from the Taliban’s Pashtun and rural political base. We have noted efforts and mechanisms towards consultation by the de facto authorities at the local level that acknowledge the pluralism of the country and that at times have had a moderating effect on some Taliban policies. But the general trend is one of a centralization of power by an unaccountable central authority. One of the key issues raised at the meeting of Special Envoys convened by the Secretary-General in Doha in May was the need for inclusive governance. There is widespread concern that a lack of inclusivity and participatory governance will lead to instability. On counter-terrorism the picture is mixed.”
2023-06-21 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9354 (2023) · source
“United Nations cash shipments, required for humanitarian operations, are expected to decrease as donor funding declines. That could begin to have a negative effect on monetary stability. I would like to draw the Council’s attention to the United Nations Strategic Framework for Afghanistan, which we will issue next week and will update and replace the Transitional Engagement Framework from last year. It outlines the range of activities the United Nations could carry out in Afghanistan between now and 2025 if the necessary enabling environment were to be provided by the de facto authorities. Such an enabling environment requires greater transparency and accountability. Politically, the Taliban regime remains insular and autocratic.”
2023-06-21 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9354 (2023) · source
“In part, that is due to the welcome reduction in high- level corruption. The de facto authorities continue to report the collection of sufficient revenues to finance Government operations, including paying civil service salaries. According to the de facto authorities, that includes approximately 500,000 civil servants who had been working under the Republic. That macroeconomic stability, however, coexists alongside severe household poverty. According to the World Bank, 58 per cent of households struggle to satisfy basic needs. United Nations humanitarian efforts continue to address the needs of the nearly 20 million people who need some form of assistance. Afghanistan, I would remind members, remains the world’s largest humanitarian crisis.”
2023-06-21 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9354 (2023) · source
“Another unfortunate effect of the bans is that they obscure some of the other more positive achievements that have taken place under the de facto authorities. One of those is the growing evidence that the Taliban’s ban on opium cultivation, announced in April last year, has been effectively enforced in many parts of the country. According to initial media reports, the cultivation of opium has decreased significantly. At the same time, the opium economy has helped sustain parts of the rural economy in Afghanistan. Donors should consider allocating funding to alternative livelihood programmes that address the specific needs of farmers affected by the ban. The Afghan economy remains stable, albeit at a low equilibrium. The World Bank reports that inflation is declining and that the exchange rate remains steady.”
2023-06-21 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9354 (2023) · source
“The de facto Taliban authorities must rescind those bans to enable the United Nations to continue its full support to the people of Afghanistan. My colleague from the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs will provide additional details in a separate briefing today on how the bans affect the humanitarian sector, as well as on the overall humanitarian situation. But I would also like to emphasize the human effects of those bans. UNAMA, in collaboration with UN-Women and the International Organization for Migration, has just released report on the situation of Afghan women. The report, which is available on the UNAMA website, documents the distressing toll the bans are taking on women’s physical and mental health and on their sense of security.”
2023-06-21 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9354 (2023) · source
“The Taliban ask to be recognized by the United Nations and its Members, but at the same time they act against the key values expressed in the United Nations Charter. The ban against Afghan women working for the United Nations adds to earlier restrictions placed on Afghan women and girls by the de facto authorities — including a ban against women working for non-governmental organizations or for other diplomatic entities; a ban preventing girls from attending non-religious secondary and tertiary educational institutions; and a ban against girls and women visiting public parks, baths and gyms. Those and other edicts limit the physical movement of women and girls and their participation in economic, social and public life.”
2023-06-21 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9354 (2023) · source
“We welcome resolution 2681 (2023), which both condemned the ban and stressed the critical importance of a continued presence of the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) and other United Nations agencies, funds and programmes across Afghanistan. We must all remind the de facto authorities of their continuing responsibilities under the Charter of the United Nations. Afghanistan, as a State, committed to those obligations as one of the earliest members of the Organization in 1946. They include the obligation to respect the privileges and immunities of the United Nations and its officials, including Afghan women who work for us. The April ban specifically targets the United Nations.”
2023-06-21 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9354 (2023) · source
“Ms. Otunbayeva: We as the United Nations continue to face a complicated situation in Afghanistan. The restrictions imposed on 5 April against Afghan women working for the United Nations place a question mark over our activities across the country. We have been given no explanations by the de facto authorities for that ban, and no assurances that it will be lifted. We will not put our national female staff in danger, and we are therefore asking them not to report to the office. At the same time, we have asked all our male national staff performing non-essential tasks to stay home to respect the principle of non-discrimination. Finally, we are steadfast: female national staff will not be replaced by male national staff, as some de facto authorities have suggested.”
2023-06-21 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9354 (2023) · source
“As I mentioned in my previous briefing (see S/PV.9227), UNAMA commissioned an independent review of its mandate, led by a former Deputy Special Representative of the Secretary-General. The general conclusions are that UNAMA’s current mandate is sufficiently robust, balanced and comprehensive for the current situation. Despite the setbacks I described, we continue to assert that there is no alternative to unified, patient and principled engagement that puts the needs and rights of the Afghan people first.”
2023-03-08 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9277 (2023) · source
“The international community, inside the region and without, has called for the decrees to be reversed for the sake of the international community. That is a clear and unified position. We hope that the Taliban will give greater consideration to the fact that this is in their interests and, above all, in the interests of the Afghan people. At the same time, the international community must begin building an agenda for discussion with the de facto authorities that includes issues that matter to the Taliban. Those two elements can form the basis of a process that can help build confidence and lead to a mutually acceptable outcome. Finally, in order for UNAMA to play its part in implementing that approach on behalf of the Council, we hope that we will be given a mandate for another year.”
2023-03-08 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9277 (2023) · source
“UNAMA is in Afghanistan on the Council’s behalf, engaging every day with the de facto authorities, with the local political opposition, with civil society, with private sector actors and, increasingly, with Afghanistan’s youth, who will inherit the future now being shaped. Our field offices carry out road missions reaching all corners of the country, not only to provide assistance but to remain connected with the people to provide the Council with the best possible information regarding the situation on the ground. That situation is extremely complex, and sometimes there are greater grounds for hope than it appears. But there is no doubt that the larger and most visible trends are worrisome and negative. They make it harder to preserve that necessary space for dialogue.”
2023-03-08 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9277 (2023) · source
“That faction understands that attention must be paid to the real needs of the people. Perhaps it can eventually execute a change of direction, but time is running short. Global crises are proliferating. Demands on donor resources are multiplying as the availability of those resources diminishes. I see those dynamics with growing concern. I fear history repeating itself, with Afghanistan taking decisions that increase its isolation. Unlike in the 1990s, however, the world is much more focused on Afghanistan. UNAMA’s strategy is to preserve whatever political space exists for honest and straightforward discourse between the Taliban and the international community, both the region and donors. We are at a moment of political impasse where trust is in short supply.”
2023-03-08 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9277 (2023) · source
“We began devising a pathway that would build confidence and clarify to the Taliban the international expectations regarding their stated desire to rejoin the international community. Yet a year ago, the Taliban leadership began consistently taking decisions that negated that stated goal. The accumulation of those decisions has been a form of Government that is simply unacceptable to the international community — something that could not have surprised the Taliban. Our collective statements of condemnation and the imposition of sanctions have not had an effect; they may have hardened certain Taliban positions. On the other hand, I believe that there is a faction within the Taliban leadership, and across the movement, that does not agree with the current direction the leadership has taken.”
2023-03-08 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9277 (2023) · source
“We have also seen the continued implementation of the instruction by the Taliban leader calling for judicial corporal punishments, often carried out in public. According to international law, those acts constitute a form of torture and ill-treatment. There is also greater stifling and repression of the media sector and civil society. Any society needs the voices of its citizens and constituencies to find compromises through dialogue, not intimidation and repression. One year ago, the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) proposed to the Security Council that the end of the general conflict in 2021 was an opportunity to build positive peace. Our initial engagements with the de facto authorities were relatively constructive and gave us reason for cautious hope.”
2023-03-08 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9277 (2023) · source
“Mitigating those threats will require more concerted and more united Member State attention and is clearly an issue that the international community has in common with the de facto authorities. Apart from the constriction on the rights of women and girls, we are also witnessing an erosion of other human rights. The Secretary-General’s report (S/2023/151) notes ongoing extra-judicial killings, arbitrary arrests, detentions and torture carried out by the de facto authorities against former Government officials and security forces. Those are violations of the Taliban’s amnesty decree. There is no transparency regarding investigations of violations, and violations appear increasingly allowed to occur.”
2023-03-08 · UN Security Council · Security Council, S/PV.9277 (2023) · source