The fourth EU-Central Asia summit of special representatives for Afghanistan has called on the Taliban (under UN sanctions for terrorism) to restore Afghan women in all their lawful rights, pointing out its importance for the nation's economic recovery, according to a joint statement published by the Turkmen Foreign Ministry on Saturday
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 27th May, 2023) The fourth EU-Central Asia summit of special representatives for Afghanistan has called on the Taliban (under UN sanctions for terrorism) to restore Afghan women in all their lawful rights, pointing out its importance for the nation's economic recovery, according to a joint statement published by the Turkmen Foreign Ministry on Saturday.
"(Special representatives) Urged the Taliban to lift all bans on Afghan girls and women restricting their rights to education, work and participation in public life. These bans - beyond being serious human rights violations - are having detrimental effects on the ability of the international community to deliver humanitarian aid to the Afghan people, and need to be lifted for the Afghan economy to prosper, and ultimately for Afghanistan to achieve long-term stability and peace," the joint statement read.
At the Friday meeting hosted by Turkmenistan, the envoys also called on the Taliban to "prevent the Afghan territory from being used as a safe haven for hosting, planning, training, financing or exporting terrorism and violent extremism to other countries."
In addition to special representatives for Afghanistan from the EU, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan, the meeting, focused on discussing Afghanistan's economic recovery, was also attended by senior UN and World Bank officials. This included UN Secretary General's Special Representative for Afghanistan and head of the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan Roza Otunbayeva, World Bank Country Director for Afghanistan Melinda Good and World Bank Country Director for Kazakhstan Andrei Mikhnev.
After coming to power in Afghanistan in 2021, the Taliban initially pledged to respect women's rights but later reneged and enacted a variety of gender-specific restrictions, including banning women from certain public jobs and employment with the United Nations.
