KABUL, AFGHANISTAN – The United Nations Security Council (UNSC) is set to discuss the situation in Afghanistan in a meeting scheduled for Monday, March 10th, the UN Department of Political and Peacebuilding Affairs (DPPA) has announced.
The meeting, chaired by Denmark as the council’s president for the month, is scheduled to take place at 3:00 pm New York time.
Roza Otunbayeva, the UN Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Afghanistan and head of the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA), is expected to brief the council on the latest developments in the country.
Later this month, on March 17, the Security Council will hold another session on Afghanistan to review and potentially extend UNAMA’s mandate, which is set to expire.
This marks the first Security Council meeting on Afghanistan in 2025. Last year, the council met four times to discuss developments in the country. During its most recent session, held on December 12, member states expressed concerns over widespread human rights violations under the Taliban rule, particularly the repression of women and girls. The council urged the Taliban to lift all restrictions on women’s rights immediately.
However, the Taliban has shown no signs of complying with UN demands. Recently, Taliban spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid criticized UNAMA, calling its work “ineffective and unsuccessful.” He accused the office of presenting “negative reports” about Afghanistan and “exaggerating minor issues to misrepresent the country’s situation.”
As mandated by the UNSC, UNAMA continues to monitor human rights and humanitarian conditions in Afghanistan while engaging directly with the Taliban. In recent years, the mission has released multiple reports detailing the humanitarian and human rights crisis, including the oppression of women and girls, as well as instances of arbitrary detention and extrajudicial killings of former military personnel and civilians.
