A group of civil society members met Richard Bennett, the UN Special Rapporteur on human rights for Afghanistan, in Germany on Saturday, calling on him to amplify the voices of Afghanistan’s women.
“I participated in a dialogue with Afghan civil society members in Germany hosted by the European Organization for Integration including on the situation of Afghans in Germany, their priorities as activists, and international policy on Afghanistan,” Bennett said in a post on X Sunday.
The participants emphasized to Bennet that the situation in Afghanistan is “not a domestic issue, it is a global concern and responsibility,” the European Organization for Integration said in a separate post.
In a joint report with the UN Working Group in June, Bennett highlighted the dire situation of human rights under the Taliban, particularly the widespread and systematic discrimination against women and girls.
The report documented that between September 2021 and May 2023, the Taliban imposed 50 draconian edicts against women and girls, including banning women’s education and employment and curbing their mobility, appearance, and rights to civic participation, among other things.
In a briefing to the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva on June 19, Bennett said, “grave, systematic, and institutionalized discrimination against women and girls is at the heart of Taliban ideology and rule, which also gives rise to concerns that they may be responsible for gender apartheid.”
