KABUL, AFGHANISTAN – Annalena Baerbock, President of the United Nations General Assembly, described attempts to appease the Taliban as unsuccessful in the face of the most severe human rights violations, opening the 61st session of the UN Human Rights Council.
Speaking on Monday (23 February), Baerbock called the situation of women and girls under Taliban rule the worst human rights violations, with some describing it as a “system of gender apartheid.”
“As you have heard already the importance of human rights and as we all agree, at least in principle otherwise we would not speak at the Human Rights Council about the importance in the 20th year of this Human Rights Council to protect human rights, I would like to start a bit differently, a bit self-reflectively to our own work here, especially given the latest headlines of the worst structural human rights violation, some call it gender apartheid system, against Afghan women and girls.”
She highlighted that discussions on humanitarian aid in Afghanistan were taking place while women were barred from working, including for the UN, and girls were denied access to education.
Baerbock also criticized arguments suggesting that conditions might differ between cities such as Kabul and Kandahar, or that more moderate policies could prevail. She stressed that appeasement in the shadow of severe human rights violations never succeeds and warned that the world must not have to learn this hard lesson again.
She emphasized that women’s rights are a measure of a society’s health, stating that if half the population is not safe, no one is truly safe.
Since returning to power in 2021, the Taliban have imposed severe restrictions on human rights. Currently, Afghan women and girls cannot access education or employment, and over the past four years, Taliban policies on women’s rights have intensified despite global criticism.
