Roza Otunbayeva, the Secretary-Normal’s Particular Consultant for Afghanistan, advised ambassadors that whereas the nation has seen a relative decline in armed battle for the reason that Taliban takeover in 2021, the humanitarian, financial and human rights state of affairs has deteriorated considerably.
“It’s an open query whether or not there may be ample pragmatism among the many de facto authorities [the Taliban] to handle this excellent storm of crises, or whether or not selections pushed by ideology will forestall sustainable options,” she mentioned.
Girls and ladies shut out
Central to the disaster, Ms. Otunbayeva confused, are sweeping Taliban restrictions on Afghan girls and ladies.
Faculties for women above grade six have now been closed for 4 years, costing the economic system an estimated $1.4 billion yearly, based on the World Financial institution. A latest UN Girls survey discovered that the majority Afghans oppose the bans.
“That is most clear concerning the de facto authorities’ insurance policies in the direction of Afghan girls,” she mentioned. “A era is at critical threat of being misplaced at an enormous long-term value to the nation.”
Roza Otunbayeva (on display), Particular Consultant of the Secretary-Normal for Afghanistan briefs the Safety Council.
‘Gender apartheid’
Additionally taking the ground on the Council, Hanifa Girowal, Vice President of the Afghan group Girls’s Rights First, was even blunter, describing the Taliban’s insurance policies as “gender persecution” and “gender apartheid.”
Talking on behalf of girls contained in the nation and in exile, she recounted the story of a younger girl in Kandahar who lamented: “By now I ought to have accomplished my grasp’s diploma and develop into a regulation professor…as an alternative, for 4 lengthy years, I’ve lived in uncertainty, unable to determine my very own future. How for much longer should I wait?”
Ms. Girowal, who was additionally a former deputy governor of Kabul, warned that the systematic exclusion of half the inhabitants “isn’t just a denial of training – it’s a deliberate coverage of pressured confinement, exclusion and subjugation.”
Help in danger
The UN has supplied practically $13 billion in humanitarian and fundamental wants help since 2021, a lot of it delivered regardless of restrictions and with strengthened safeguards to stop diversion.
But humanitarian help is below pressure, Ms. Otunbayeva cautioned, with worldwide funding reduce by practically 50 % this 12 months.
“These cuts are partly the results of Afghanistan’s anti-women insurance policies,” she mentioned, including that the enforcement of bans on Afghan girls working for NGOs and the UN has already hindered aid efforts, together with after latest earthquakes.
“This critical restriction hinders the UN’s skill to assist the Afghan folks at their second of nice want,” she warned.
Ms. Girowal known as for the Council to undertake a decision reaffirming the unconditional function of humanitarian support and establishing an unbiased worldwide monitoring mechanism to trace diversions and guarantee accountability.
Financial and local weather strains
Past support, Afghanistan’s economic system stays on life assist. Progress of two.7 per cent is lagging behind inhabitants will increase, whereas 75 per cent of Afghans dwell at subsistence stage, compounded by cuts to the general public sector.
Local weather change is deepening the hardship. A brand new drought threatens the majority-rural inhabitants, lots of whom are subsistence farmers.
Ms. Otunbayeva warned that Kabul – house to virtually six million folks – may develop into “the primary fashionable metropolis to expire of water” inside years, not a long time.
The ban on poppy cultivation, enforced since 2023, has diminished opium manufacturing however devastated poor farmers who as soon as relied on it for his or her livelihoods. In the meantime, greater than two million Afghans have returned from Iran and Pakistan previously two years, stripping the economic system of $1 billion in remittances and straining native providers.
Restricted progress and engagement
Ms. Otunbayeva famous some optimistic developments since 2021, together with the Taliban’s normal amnesty for former opponents, relative stability after a long time of struggle, and measures to curb torture and permit UN human rights entry to prisons.
The sustained ban on poppy cultivation additionally has regional advantages, she mentioned, if sustainable options for farmers are discovered.
Nonetheless, she confused that additional progress relies on significant engagement with the Taliban below the UN-led Doha course of, which seeks to steadiness pragmatism with respect for worldwide norms.
“Most Afghans need engagement between the worldwide group and their nation to proceed, regardless of the obstacles,” she mentioned, urging the Safety Council to keep up unity on Afghanistan.
Greater than 23 million folks in Afghanistan require humanitarian help.
Time is working out
Echoing the decision for Safety Council unity and motion, Ms. Girowal known as for setting clear benchmarks for engagement with the Taliban.
These, she mentioned, ought to embrace reopening colleges and universities for women, restoring girls’s proper to work, and granting full entry for UN displays.
She additionally known as on international locations to halt pressured deportations of Afghans, citing over two million returns from Iran and Pakistan in 2025 alone, which she mentioned had led to persecution and even killings.
“We’re working out of time,” she mentioned. “The state of affairs on the bottom is simply getting worse…however the excellent news is that you are able to do one thing about it.”
