CNN
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The United Nations has instructed all of its personnel in Afghanistan to steer clear of its workplaces within the nation, after the Taliban banned Afghan girls from working with the group.
“UN nationwide personnel – ladies and men – have been instructed to not report back to UN workplaces, with solely restricted and calibrated exceptions made for essential duties,” the group stated in a press release.
It comes after Afghan males working for the UN in Kabul stayed house final week in solidarity with their feminine colleagues.
The UN stated the Taliban’s transfer was an extension of a earlier ban, enforced final December, that prohibited Afghan girls from working for nationwide and worldwide non-governmental organizations.
The group stated the ban is “the most recent in a collection of discriminatory measures applied by the Taliban de facto authorities with the objective of severely limiting girls and ladies’ participation in most areas of public and each day life in Afghanistan.”
It’s going to proceed to “assess the scope, parameters and penalties of the ban, and pause actions the place impeded,” the assertion stated, including that the “matter will likely be underneath fixed evaluation.”
A number of feminine UN employees within the nation had already skilled restrictions on their actions because the Taliban seized energy in 2021, together with harassment and detention.
Ramiz Alakbarov, the UN Deputy Particular Consultant, Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator for Afghanistan, referred to as the Taliban’s choice an “unparalleled violation of human rights” final week.
“The lives of Afghanistan girls are at stake,” he stated, including, “It’s not attainable to achieve girls with out girls.”
The UN Secretary-Basic’s Particular Consultant for Afghanistan, Roza Otunbayeva, is participating with the Taliban on the highest stage to “search a right away reversal of the order,” the UN stated final week.
“Within the historical past of the United Nations, no different regime has ever tried to ban girls from working for the Group simply because they’re girls. This choice represents an assault in opposition to girls, the elemental rules of the UN, and on worldwide legislation,” Otunbayeva stated.
Different figures inside the group additionally condemned the transfer, with the UN Excessive Commissioner for Human Rights calling it “totally despicable.”
After the Taliban banned feminine assist staff in December, no less than half a dozen main overseas assist teams briefly suspended their operations in Afghanistan – diminishing the already scarce sources accessible to a rustic in dire want of them.
The Taliban’s return to energy preceded a deepening humanitarian disaster in Afghanistan, worsening points that had lengthy plagued the nation. After the takeover, the US and its allies froze about $7 billion of the nation’s overseas reserves and minimize off worldwide funding – crippling an financial system closely depending on abroad assist.
