Deputy PM Meets with UK’s Chatterston Dickson

The meeting is the first between Mawlawi Abdul Kabir and a foreign official within the past three months.

The Prime Minister’s office said in a press release that the Political Deputy Prime Minister Mawlawi Abdul Kabir met with Robert Chatterton Dickson, chargé d’affaires ad interim of the UK Mission to Afghanistan, and discussed many issues.

In the meeting, the Political Deputy Prime Minister emphasized the need to give the seat of Afghanistan to the representative of the Islamic Emirate in the United Nations and asked countries to send their representatives to Afghanistan.

“The Islamic Emirate has committed to having good relations with all countries but with conditions that the countries do not interfere in the internal affairs of Afghanistan and let the Afghans continue improving and developing amid stability,” said Zabiullah Mujahid, the Islamic Emirate’s spokesman.

The meeting is the first between Mawlawi Abdul Kabir and a foreign official within the past three months as the deputy PM was absent from the office due to health issues.

“The deputy Prime Minister asked the Britain chargé d’affaires to give the Afghanistan seat at the UN to the Islamic Emirate. I think this a useless wish. The Islamic Emirate should bring reforms inside the country,” said Wahid Faqiri, international relations analyst.

“The meeting between the Deputy Prime Minister and chargé d’affaires is effective for the improvement of the situation in Afghanistan,” said Ahmad Khan Andar, political analyst.

Returning to his office, Mawlawi Abdul Kabir on Wednesday met with many members of the cabinet, where he discussed the Afghan refugees deported by Pakistan.

Deputy PM Meets with UK’s Chatterston Dickson
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UNSC Renews Mandate of Team Monitoring Sanctions on Islamic Emirate

Geng Shuang, Chinese envoy at the UNSC, stressed the need to ensure that Afghanistan does not become a hub for terrorist organizations.

The UN Security Council said in a statement it has extended for another year the mandate of the team monitoring sanctions on the “Taliban and associated individuals and entities, which threaten Afghanistan’s peace, security and stability.”

The 15-member body, the statement said, “unanimously adopted resolution 2716 (2023) (to be issued as document S/RES/2716(2023)), directing the Monitoring Team to support the Committee established by resolution 1988 (2011), designating sanctions on individuals, groups, undertakings and entities found to be part of and linked to the Taliban.”

“Further to the text, the Monitoring Team is to gather information on instances of non-compliance with measures that include the freezing of funds and assets, prevention of travel and supply or transfer of arms and related equipment, established by resolution 2255 (2015),” UNSC said. “It is also to facilitate, upon request of Member States, assistance with capacity-building, and provide recommendations to the Committee for actions to respond to non-compliance.”

The new mandate will expire in December 2024.

According to the statement, the US ambassador to the UN, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, whose delegation was the penholder on Afghanistan sanctions issues, welcomed the mandate’s renewal, saying the voting result is a “confirmation of the continuing importance of the 1988 sanctions regime” in supporting peace and security in Afghanistan.

The Team’s reporting remains crucial to understanding both the impact of the sanctions and the events on the ground in Afghanistan, she said, adding that “these insights enable Member States to track whether the Taliban follows through on its commitments,” including on counter-terrorism, human rights for women and girls and unhindered humanitarian access.

Geng Shuang, Chinese envoy at the UNSC, stressed the need to ensure that Afghanistan does not become a hub for terrorist organizations.

The international community must integrate the country into “the family of nations,” he said, expressing appreciation for the provision encouraging the Monitoring Team to visit Afghanistan and communicate with all Afghan parties.

He also urged the council to make timely adjustments to sanctions measures to avoid any negative impact on the Afghan people.

The team’s reports are a useful support for the Committee, said Anna M. Evstigneeva, envoy of the Russian Federation.

She said they are pleased that the text of the adopted resolution notes the importance of the travel of the team to Afghanistan, which remains a key condition for the mandate’s implementation.

But the Islamic Emirate condemned the decision, saying that the imposition of sanctions does not benefit any side.

“It is better that the countries and organizations understand that the imposition of sanctions is not the solution. The failed experiences will not be beneficial,” said Zabiullah Mujahid, the Islamic Emirate’s spokesman.

The Islamic Emirate’s leaders within the past two years have repeatedly voiced criticism over sanctions imposed on them by the international community.

UNSC Renews Mandate of Team Monitoring Sanctions on Islamic Emirate
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Afghanistan: Taliban sends abused women to prison – UN

By Nicholas Yong
BBC News
15th December 2023
Getty Images An Afghan woman sits while holding prayer beadsGetty Images
There are no more state-sponsored women’s shelters in Afghanistan

The Taliban government in Afghanistan is putting women abuse survivors in prison and claiming it is for their protection, according to a UN report.

The UN said the practice harms the survivors’ mental and physical health.

There are also no more state-sponsored women’s shelters as the Taliban government sees no need for such centres, the report noted.

The Taliban’s suppression of women’s rights in Afghanistan is one of the harshest in the world.

The United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan’s (UNAMA) said that gender-based violence against Afghan women and girls was known to be high even before the Taliban took over Afghanistan.

But since then, such incidents have become even more common, given the impact of economic, financial and humanitarian crises which have afflicted the country, UNAMA said. Women have also been increasingly confined to their homes, which heightens their vulnerability to domestic and intimate partner violence.

Before the Taliban retook power in 2021, there were 23 state-sponsored women’s protection centres or shelters in Afghanistan, according to UNAMA, but these have since vanished.

Taliban officials told UNAMA there was no need for the shelters as the women must be with their husbands or male family members. One said such shelters were “a western concept”.

The officials said they would ask for male members of the family to make a “commitment” to not harm the woman survivor.

In instances where she had no male relatives to stay with, or where there were safety concerns, the survivor would be sent to prison “for her protection”. This would be similar to how some drug addicts and homeless people are housed in the capital Kabul, noted UNAMA.

But UNAMA said this “would amount to an arbitrary deprivation of liberty”.

“Confining women who are already in a situation of vulnerability in a punitive environment would also likely have a negative impact on their mental and physical health, re-victimisation and put them at risk of discrimination and stigmatisation upon released.”

UNAMA also noted that for a one-year period from 15 August 2021, the Taliban administration’s handling of gender-based violence complaints was “unclear and inconsistent”.

For example, there is no clear distinction between criminal and civil complaints, which does not ensure effective legal protection for women and girls.

The complaints are mostly handled by male personnel, and UNAMA noted that the absence of women personnel “discourages and inhibits survivors from lodging complaints”.

Survivors are now no longer guaranteed redress for their complaints, including civil remedies and compensation. They are reportedly more afraid of the Taliban government and their arbitrary actions and thus choose not to seek formal justice, said UNAMA.

While there were efforts to advance women’s rights between 2001 and 2021 – including law and policy reforms – these have “all but disappeared”.

Since retaking power in 2021, the Taliban government have all but broken their earlier promises to give women the right to work and study.

Girls in Afghanistan are only allowed to attend primary school. Teenage girls and women have also been barred from entering school and university classrooms.

They are not allowed in parks, gyms and pools. Beauty salons have been shut, while women must dress in a way that only reveals their eyes. They must be accompanied by a male relative if they are travelling more than 72km (45 miles).

Afghanistan: Taliban sends abused women to prison – UN
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Pakistan Wants Handover of Attackers Allegedly in Afghanistan

Zabihullah Mujahid, the spokesman of the Islamic Emirate, said that the problem of Afghanistan and Pakistan should be solved jointly.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the caretaker government of Pakistan asked the Islamic Emirate to hand over the perpetrators of the recent attack in Dera Ismail Khan in that country.

Mumtaz Zahra Baloch, the spokesperson of Pakistan’s foreign ministry, also said they wanted the prevention of “terrorist actions from Afghanistan’s soil against Pakistan.”

Meanwhile, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, the former foreign minister of Pakistan, also said that after the Islamic Emirate again took over Afghanistan, the prisoners who were released from the Afghan prisons included people who were involved in terrorist activities in Pakistan.

Zardari added: “After the political changes in Afghanistan, the prisoners who were released from Afghanistan’s prisons included those people who were involved in terrorist activities in Pakistan And the government of Pakistan did not prevent their release.”

But the Islamic Emirate once again pledged that the territory of Afghanistan will not be used against any country, including Pakistan.

Zabihullah Mujahid, the spokesman of the Islamic Emirate, said that the problem of Afghanistan and Pakistan should be solved jointly.

Mujahid said: “Afghanistan also has the same policy of not harming any country from its territory after the Islamic Emirate came to power. If someone was imprisoned here and they fled to Pakistan, the Islamic Emirate is not to blame, and this problem must have a proper solution.”

At the same time, a number of experts emphasized the need to solve the challenges.

“Pakistan wants to manage their economic situation with military bases,” said Salim Paigir, a military analyst.

This comes as the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Pakistan in a statement on Thursday demanded an investigation into the recent attack, to arrest its perpetrators, to condemn it at the highest level, and not to use Afghanistan’s soil against Pakistan, as well as to hand over members of the Pakistani Taliban.

Pakistan Wants Handover of Attackers Allegedly in Afghanistan
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Pakistan extends deadline for Afghans awaiting third-country resettlement

By

Islamabad, Pakistan – The Pakistani government has announced that undocumented Afghans awaiting paperwork to resettle to a third country will be allowed to stay in Pakistan for two more months.

The extension of the deadline on Wednesday from the end of this year to February 29 comes amid Pakistan’s drive to expel more than one million foreigners living in the country without paperwork.

According to the United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR), more than 450,000 people have returned to neighbouring Afghanistan since the deportation campaign began in early October. Ninety percent of them did so “voluntarily”, according to the Pakistani government, but the UNHCR says they cited fear of arrest as the primary reason for their decision to leave.

Announcing the extension, interim information minister Murtaza Solangi said anybody overstaying the new deadline would be fined $100 monthly, with a cap set at $800.

“These measures were aimed at encouraging the Afghans residing illegally in Pakistan to obtain legal documents or finalise evacuation agreements as soon as possible in a third country,” Solangi added.

The announcement followed a visit to Pakistan by US State Department officials to discuss the issue of Afghan refugees. It is estimated that nearly 25,000 Afghans require paperwork for resettlement in the United States.

Pakistan estimates that more than 1.7 million Afghan nationals have long lived in the country without documents, with the majority arriving in different waves since the Soviet invasion in 1979.

The last such major influx of an estimated 600,000 to 800,000 people took place two years ago after the Taliban took control of Afghanistan.

Pakistani authorities have cited a dramatic surge in violence this year – there have been more than 600 attacks in the first 11 months of 2023 – for the deportation drive.

Interim Interior Minister Sarfraz Bugti said in October that 14 out of 24 suicide attacks in the country over that period were carried out by Afghan nationals. He did not provide any evidence.

The Taliban has denied any accusations of providing shelter to fighters, maintaining their position that Afghanistan’s soil is not being used for cross-border violence.

SOURCE: AL JAZEERA

 

Pakistan extends deadline for Afghans awaiting third-country resettlement
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Pakistan Seeks US Help Against Pakistani Taliban in Afghanistan

Pakistan’s army chief is in Washington this week seeking U.S. assistance against what Islamabad alleges are terrorist havens in neighboring Afghanistan.

General Asim Munir is trying to convince U.S. security and defense officials that militant groups such as Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and Islamic State’s Khorasan offshoot (IS-K) pose a threat not only to Pakistan but also to U.S. and global security, experts say.

“In seeking U.S. sympathy and support for Pakistan’s counterterrorism concerns, he may note the many years of U.S.-Pakistan military cooperation that includes some counterterrorism collaborations, as well as many years of military education and training exchanges,” said Michael Kugelman, director of the South Asia Institute at the Wilson Center.

“He will likely also note that both countries face threats emanating from Afghanistan, whether IS-K or TTP,” Kugelman added.

On Wednesday, Munir met with Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin and discussed “recent regional security developments and potential areas for bilateral defense cooperation,” according to a brief statement from the Pentagon.

Despite the withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan over two years ago, the United States has retained what U.S. officials term over-the-horizon capabilities in the region: the ability to strike targets in response to security threats. In July 2022, a U.S. drone strike killed Ayman al-Zawahiri the former al-Qaida chief in Kabul.

On Wednesday, Jan Achakzai, Pakistan’s acting information minister, posted on X and subsequently deleted a series of proposed actions in response to a deadly attack on a military camp in northwest Pakistan on Tuesday. The attack, involving a vehicle-borne blast and shooting, resulted in at least 23 deaths and over 40 injuries, according to Pakistani authorities.

Achakzai suggested, among other measures, that Pakistan should propose offering U.S. drone bases to target terrorist sanctuaries in Afghanistan.

The de facto Taliban authorities in Afghanistan have consistently rejected Pakistan’s allegations, saying they do not permit groups and individuals to pose threats to any country from Afghan soil.

Pakistan has grappled with the TTP insurgency for nearly two decades, but Pakistani officials claim that the group has escalated its terrorist activities since the Afghan Taliban regained power in Afghanistan in 2021.

US response

Before coming to Washington, Munir met Thomas West, the U.S. special representative for Afghanistan, in Islamabad.

“The United States stands with Pakistan against terrorism in the region,” West wrote on X, adding that the TTP poses “grave security challenges.”

While expressing sympathy and understanding, the U.S. — at least for now — does not seem to be considering military action specifically against TTP hideouts in Afghanistan.

“With respect to relations between Pakistan and Afghanistan, obviously we support diplomatic resolution to all of the various issues between those two countries,” State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller told reporters on Monday.

The United States has funded several counterterrorism capacity-building programs in Pakistan focused on law enforcement and justice, Miller said Wednesday when asked what kind of support the U.S. would offer Pakistan.

Washington’s position appears grounded in its own risk assessment.

A recent U.S. intelligence assessment indicated that “al-Qaida has reached its historical nadir in Afghanistan and Pakistan” is unlikely to revive itself.

The other terrorist group of particular U.S. concern, IS-K, has reportedly been weakened by Taliban counterterrorism operations, according to the assessment.

Senior U.S. officials have said they will hold the Afghan Taliban accountable for their counterterrorism commitments made under the U.S.-Taliban Doha agreement.

“The U.S., and particularly the current administration, is fed up with military involvement in South-Central Asia,” Robert Grenier, the former head of counterterrorism at the Central Intelligence Agency, told VOA in written comments.

“Absent attacks on U.S. interests clearly emanating from Afghanistan, the U.S. will remain neutral,” he said.

Proxy turned enemy?

Since their emergence as an extremist Islamist movement in Afghanistan in 1990s, the Taliban have often been labeled a proxy group for the Pakistani military and intelligence.

During the U.S.’s two decades of war in Afghanistan, former Afghan and U.S. officials consistently accused Pakistan of providing shelter and support to Taliban insurgents.

Many Pakistanis celebrated the Taliban’s return to power in Afghanistan in 2021, including former Prime Minister Imran Khan, who declared that Afghans had broken the “shackles of slavery.”

“The [Afghan] Taliban want to assert their independence from their former patron, and that is being expressed through defiance and an unwillingness to help Islamabad if it doesn’t serve the Taliban’s interests,” said Kugelman of the Wilson Center.

Pakistan has recently started deporting tens of thousands of Afghan refugees and undocumented migrants, a move independent observers believe is intended to exert pressure on the Taliban to adhere to Islamabad’s security demands.

Afghans Face Abuses in Pakistan, US Announces Hotline

About 3 million Afghan nationals live in Pakistan, and Pakistani officials say some of them are involved in terrorist and criminal activities.

Some Pakistani officials have called on the country’s powerful army to take unilateral action against purported TTP havens inside Afghanistan.

For years, the Pakistani military executed large-scale operations against TTP in the country’s northwestern regions bordering Afghanistan, but the group, which fights for a Shariah-based regime in Pakistan, has managed to survive.

Until the Taliban seized power, Pakistani officials advised the former Afghan government to negotiate a political settlement to end the Taliban insurgency in Afghanistan.

Now, the Afghan Taliban say TTP is an internal issue for Pakistan to handle.

VOA senior diplomatic correspondent Cindy Saine contributed to this story.

Pakistan Seeks US Help Against Pakistani Taliban in Afghanistan
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Releasing Americans Detained in Afghanistan is US Priority: Miller

The political analysts said that Washington and Kabul should exchange the detainees in a bid to pave the way for an improvement of relations.

The US Department of State’s spokesman, Mathew Miller, said that Washington does not have a higher priority than the safety and security of US citizens overseas.

He made the remarks in response to a question about Ryan Corbett, an American who’s been detained by the “Taliban” and has been held captive there for 16 months and how willing Kabul is to engage on the topic of detainees at the moment: “So I don’t want to try to assess their willingness. What I will say is that, of course, we have no higher priority than the safety and security of U.S. citizens overseas. Not just in this meeting but in previous meetings we have continually pressed for the release of Americans detained in Afghanistan. Special Representative West did meet with a representative of the Taliban this week and pressed for the release of Ryan Corbett and other American detainees.”

“So I wouldn’t want to assess their willingness other than to say it is the highest priority for us and we will continue to work on it,” he said.

Meanwhile, the Islamic Emirate’s spokesman, Zabiullah Mujahid, said that “if any American came to Afghanistan and committed a crime they might be detained but there is no [American] soldier to be detained,” he said.

The political analysts said that Washington and Kabul should exchange the detainees in a bid to pave the way for an improvement of relations.

“I believe that the release of this person [American detainee] will have a positive impact and it will help with the arrival of tourists,” said Wahid Faqiri, an international relations analyst.

The US officials previously also said that they have discussed the fate of the Americans in Afghanistan in their meetings with the Taliban officials.

Releasing Americans Detained in Afghanistan is US Priority: Miller
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UNAMA Urges ‘Taliban’ to Take Steps to Protect Women From Violence

This comes as the interim Afghan government has been globally criticized for its strict policies towards women and girls.

The UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) urged the “de facto Taliban authorities to take all necessary steps to protect Afghan women and girls from gender-based violence, in line with their obligations under international human rights law to “respect, protect and fulfill women’s and girls’ rights to non-discrimination and to the enjoyment of de jure and de facto equality.”

UNAMA in a 24-page report stressed the “de facto authorities should confirm or clarify the applicable legal framework that prescribes and regulates the administration of justice regarding complaints of gender based violence against Afghan women and girls.”

According to the report, between 15 August 2021 and 15 July 2022, UNAMA observed that the “de facto authorities’ handling of complaints/cases12 of gender-based violence against women and girls was unclear and inconsistent.”

“With a view to understanding how the Taliban de facto justice system handled and addressed these complaints,” the report said.

The report said that the “de facto authorities” shared that they use Sharia law to process and adjudicate complaints of gender-based violence against women and girls, as well as the laws of the former Government, with Sharia law taking precedence in cases of conflict with the laws of the former Government.

“A de facto official of the now repurposed Attorney General’s Office in the Northern Region stated, however, that punishments for [gender based] violence against women crimes under Sharia law [compared to the laws of the former Government] are much lower,” the report reads.

However, the report said it is unknown how Sharia law under the “de facto authorities interprets gender-based violence against women and girls and the related sanctions and remedies.”

This comes as the interim Afghan government has been globally criticized for its strict policies towards women and girls.

“The activities of national and international organizations could be effective when they are able to create a space for negotiations between the Afghan society and the institutions of the ruling government such as the Vice and Virtue Ministry, police and intelligence,” said Palwasha Paiwandi, a political analyst.

But the Islamic Emirate pledged that all cases will be addressed without discrimination in Afghanistan.

“The voices of men and women are heard equally. If there is a legal issue, the legal institutions will take actions in this regard. If it belongs to the judicial system, the judicial institutions are opened for the people including men and women. There is no such problem that men would have access but not women,” said Zabiullah Mujahid, the Islamic Emirate spokesman.

UNAMA Urges ‘Taliban’ to Take Steps to Protect Women From Violence
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Taliban sending Afghan women to prison to protect them from gender-based violence, says UN report

Associated Press

December 14, 2023

ISLAMABAD (AP) — Taliban officials are sending Afghan women to prison to protect them from gender-based violence, according to a U.N. report published Thursday.

Before the Taliban seized power in 2021, there were 23 state-sponsored women protection centers in Afghanistan where survivors of gender-based violence could seek refuge. Now there are none, the U.N. report said.

Officials from the Taliban-led administration told the U.N. Assistance Mission in Afghanistan that there was no need for such shelters or that they were a Western concept.

The Taliban sends women to prison if they have no male relatives to stay with or if the male relatives are considered unsafe, the report said. Authorities have also asked male relatives for commitments or sworn statements that they will not harm a female relative, inviting local elders to witness the guarantee, it added.

Women are sent to prison for their protection “akin to how prisons have been used to accommodate drug addicts and homeless people in Kabul,” the report said.

The Associated Press contacted Taliban-led ministries about where survivors of gender-based violence can seek help, what protection measures are in place, and the conviction rates for offenders, but nobody was available for comment.

Women and girls have been increasingly confined to their homes since the Taliban takeover in 2021. They are barred from education beyond sixth grade, including university, public spaces like parks, and most jobs. They are required to take a male chaperone with them on journeys of more than 72 km (45 miles) and follow a dress code.

A Taliban decree in July ordered the closure of all beauty salons, one of the few remaining places that women could go to outside the home or family environment.

But Afghanistan has, for years, ranked among the worst places in the world to be born female.

Millions of girls were out of school before the Taliban takeover for cultural and other reasons. Child marriage, violence and abuse were widespread.

Rights groups warned that Taliban rule would enable violence against women and girls and decimate any legal protection for them.

Women are no longer working in the judiciary or law enforcement, not allowed to deal with crimes of gender-based violence, and only permitted to attend work when called upon by their male supervisors, according to the U.N. report.

Taliban sending Afghan women to prison to protect them from gender-based violence, says UN report
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Afghanistan excluded from COP28 as climate impacts hit home

By  and 

DUBAI, Dec 11 (Reuters) – Humanitarian concerns have been raised over Afghanistan being left out of United Nations climate negotiations for a third year in a row, as the country grapples with worsening drought and floods.

Dozens of people were killed in Afghanistan, one of the world’s most vulnerable countries to climate change, after heavy rains triggered flash floods that swept across drought-stricken land earlier this year.

But the country is absent from the COP28 climate summit in Dubai, having been left out of such U.N. talks since the Taliban took over Kabul in 2021.

No foreign government has formally recognised Taliban leadership, and it does not have a seat at the U.N. General Assembly.

Foreign officials have cited the Taliban’s restrictions on women as the reason for current isolationist policies, particularly its barring of girls and women from high school and universities.

However, some have questioned the country’s continued exclusion. Humanitarian and international officials told Reuters they made efforts this year to allow Afghan representatives to be able to attend, coinciding with broader talks among foreign governments and multilateral institutions on how to deal with the Taliban.

Though ultimately unsuccessful, “there’s hope that maybe next year you might see engagement with Afghanistan in some capacity again,” said Qiyamud Din Ikram of the nonprofit Refugees International on the sidelines of the COP28 summit.

IMPACT ON WOMEN

The U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC)’s COP Bureau, which is responsible for accrediting parties to the annual summits, decided at a November 2022 meeting to defer a decision on future Afghanistan representation.

The Taliban administration has called its COP28 exclusion “regrettable”.

“Efforts were made to have the representatives of Afghanistan participate in the 28th U.N. Climate Change Conference…but no positive response was received,” said Rouhullah Amin, head of climate adaptation at the country’s National Environmental Protection Agency (NEPA), now run by the Taliban.

A senior U.N. source said U.N. and other international officials had made efforts in recent months to get NEPA officials and other Afghan representatives present at COP28.

The UNFCCC did not respond to a request for comment on Afghanistan’s lack of participation at COP28.

In rural Afghanistan, women are responsible for fetching water for their families, an increasingly difficult task as the country struggles with drought.

Women make up many of the 20 million Afghans facing severe food insecurity, exacerbated by declining food aid as governments slash Afghanistan’s humanitarian funding.

Some nonprofits have said isolationist policies can further hurt women.

Payvand Seyedali, Afghanistan’s country director for nonprofit Women for Women International, said: “We don’t have the luxury of not engaging with the de facto authorities in Afghanistan.”

The Taliban say they respect women’s rights in line with their interpretation of Islamic law.

Others said Afghan women feel disengagement is appropriate until the Taliban rolls back restrictions.

“Every time they see the Taliban being welcomed in foreign capitals, it sends a message that their (women’s) rights do not matter to the rest of the world,” said Heather Barr of Human Rights Watch.

FROZEN FINANCES

The Taliban’s takeover of government institutions has also meant that Afghanistan is unable to access key U.N. climate funds, including the Green Climate Fund (GCF).

GCF spokesperson Stephanie Speck said the fund no longer had a recognized focal point in Afghanistan following the COP Bureau’s 2022 decision.

The GCF had approved nearly $18 million for a sustainable energy project in Afghanistan before the Taliban’s takeover. That project has now been “put on hold to allow for a full review of current and emerging risks”, Speck said.

Other proposals that the previous Afghan government had been working on sought more than $750 million, including for projects to improve irrigation and deploy rooftop solar panels in Kabul. They, too, have been postponed, according to a NEPA document seen by Reuters.

RENEWED DIALOGUE

Some have questioned the isolationist approach to the Taliban. A report on Taliban engagement, commissioned by the U.N. Security Council, concluded last month that “the status quo of international engagement is not working”.

It recommended expanding international cooperation on climate adaptation and response.

“Conversations with the Taliban on climate change adaptation could potentially be a confidence building measure,” said Paul Klouman Bekken, Norway’s charge d’affaires for Afghanistan who regularly meets Taliban officials in Kabul.

Roza Otunbayeva, who heads the U.N. mission in Afghanistan, called the situation “unsustainable.”

“It is time to think creatively, to ensure that in one year’s time we are not approaching COP29 with yet another statement on Afghanistan’s absence.”

Reporting by Gloria Dickie in Dubai and Charlotte Greenfield in Islamabad; Additional reporting by Mohammad Yunus Yawar in Kabul; Editing by Katy Daigle and Bernadette Baum

Afghanistan excluded from COP28 as climate impacts hit home
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