OHCHR urges Taliban to reverse restrictions on women

• Volker Turk, the UN human rights chief, called for the Taliban authorities to revoke immediately a raft of policies that target the rights of women and girls in Afghanistan, saying that they cause “terrible, cascading effects” on their lives and risk destabilising the nation.

• “No country can develop, indeed survive, socially and economically with half its population excluded,” said the High Commissioner for Human Rights.

• On December 24, the authorities issued a decree banning women from working in non-governmental organisations (NGOs). 

• This latest decree followed the suspension of university education for women and secondary schooling for girls until what they termed further notice.

• NGOs and humanitarian organisations provide critical life-saving services for many people in Afghanistan, including food, water, shelter and health care, as well as critical programmes, such as pre- and post-natal and infant care, which are only provided by women.

• Many NGOs – often staffed with women, including in leadership roles – are essential partners for the UN and other agencies in administering humanitarian and development programmes throughout the country.

• “Banning women from working in NGOS will deprive them and their families of their incomes, and of their right to contribute positively to the development of their country and to the well-being of their fellow citizens,” warned the High Commissioner.

• The UN Security Council decried increasing restrictions on women’s rights in Afghanistan, urging the country’s Taliban rulers to reverse them immediately.

• The UNSC stressed that the move would have “a significant and immediate impact for humanitarian operations in country, including those of the UN, and the delivery of aid and health work”, and that the restrictions “contradict the commitments made by the Taliban to the Afghan people as well as the expectations of the international community”. 

The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR)

• The Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (UN Human Rights) is the leading UN entity on human rights.

• The UN General Assembly established the OHCHR in December 1993.

The mission of the OHCHR is:

i) To work for the protection of all human rights for all people.

ii) To help empower people to realise their rights.

iii) To assist those responsible for upholding such rights in ensuring that they are implemented.

• The High Commissioner for Human Rights is the principal human rights official of the United Nations.

• The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights is accountable to the Secretary-General and is responsible for all the activities of OHCHR, as well as for its administration.

• The High Commissioner is appointed by the Secretary-General of the UN and approved by the General Assembly, with due regard to geographical rotation for a fixed term of four years with a possibility of one renewal for another fixed term of four years.

• Volker Turk of Austria is the current High Commissioner for Human Rights, and took up his duties in October 2022.

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