While Excluding Female Delegates, UN Vows to Prioritize Women’s Rights at Doha Talks Despite Excluding Female Delegates
The United Nations has vowed to prioritize human rights, particularly women’s rights, as a key point of discussion at the upcoming third Doha talks, despite the controversy surrounding the exclusion of female Afghan delegates from the event.
Stephane Dujarric, the spokesperson for the UN Secretary-General, told Reuters on Sunday, June 23rd, that the aim of the Doha talks is to encourage the Taliban to engage in coordinated and regular dialogue with the world, in line with the interests of Afghans. He added that the Doha talks are part of a process, not a one-time event, and that Afghan women and civil society will be involved in this process.
Dujarric’s comments came after Roza Otunbayeva, the UN Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Afghanistan and head of UNAMA, told reporters in New York on Friday that female representatives from Afghanistan will not be present at the upcoming Doha talks on June 30th and July 1st.
However, she added that they will participate in meetings before and after this event. Otunbayeva also stated that important agenda items of the talks, such as counter-narcotics policies, private trade, and banking, are also relevant to women.
This UN decision has drawn widespread reactions both inside and outside Afghanistan. Tirana Hassan, the Executive Director of Human Rights Watch, said the move risks legitimizing the Taliban’s abuses and causing irreparable damage to the UN’s credibility.
Heather Barr, the Acting Co-Director of the Women’s Rights Division at Human Rights Watch, shared Hassan’s statement on her X (formerly Twitter) account on Sunday. Additionally, Agnes Kalibata, the President of the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA), warned that the talks’ credibility would be undermined if women, human rights defenders, and civil society are excluded.
Meanwhile, some Afghan women and women’s rights activists argue that if women are not allowed to have face-to-face meetings with the Taliban and discuss the restrictions imposed on them and resolve their issues, the talks will yield no results, according to their statements.
Reuters reported that the Taliban is expected to send a delegation to attend the Doha talks, which will begin on June 30th and conclude on July 1st. This will be the third Doha talks hosted by the UN in Qatar, but the first time the Taliban will participate.
