In the lead up to the UNAMA mandate renewal, the Group of Friends of Women in Afghanistan and the Georgetown Institute for Women, Peace, and Security will host a high-level event with Afghan women experts to consider how to make international mechanisms more effective in upholding human rights for women and girls in Afghanistan.
---
Afghanistan is facing a dire human rights emergency that is deteriorating by the day. Since the fall of Kabul in August, the Taliban have threatened fundamental rights and freedoms, with women, girls, and civil society among those most affected. A new UNAMA report shows the escalation of extrajudicial killings, the disappearance of former government employees, and the detention of women’s rights activists and journalists, including ethnic and religious minorities.
Peaceful protestors have been beaten, threatened, and harassed, and Taliban authorities have imposed wide-ranging restrictions on media and free speech. Several women’s rights defenders and leading peacebuilders have been targeted, and there is widespread fear of reprisals since a violent crackdown on women’s protests in January. Such abuses and violations often occur with impunity.
