UN Security Council To Vote on Condemning Taliban Ban on Afghan Women Working for UN

The UN Security Council is scheduled to vote on a resolution condemning the Taliban’s recent ban on Afghan women working for the United Nations in Afghanistan. The resolution, drafted by the United Arab Emirates and Japan, calls on the Taliban administration to “swiftly reverse” the crackdown on women’s and girls’ rights. Diplomats predict that it will be adopted. The resolution highlights the importance of women’s roles in Afghan society and states that the ban undermines human rights and humanitarian principles.

The ban on Afghan women working for the UN could jeopardize the operations of the UN in Afghanistan, says UAE UN Ambassador Lana Nusseibeh. She believes that the situation in the country cannot be addressed sustainably without women. The Taliban began enforcing the ban earlier this month after previously stopping most women from working for humanitarian aid groups in December. The Taliban have also been tightening controls on women’s access to public life, such as closing girls’ high schools and banning women from university.

The draft resolution acknowledges the need to address substantial economic challenges facing Afghanistan, including using assets belonging to Afghanistan’s Central Bank for the benefit of the Afghan people. The vote comes days before a planned international meeting in Doha on May 1-2 on Afghanistan. The United States froze more than $7 billion of the bank’s reserves held in the US, and later transferred half of the money to a trust fund in Switzerland overseen by US, Swiss, and Afghan trustees. The other half was set aside half for victims of the Sept. 11 attacks.