In defense of the decision to bar civil society organizations, such as female right activists from attending the two-day Afghanistan conferences in Doha; Rosemary DiCarlo, the UN Under-Secretary-General issued a statement. She declared that women should be involved in public affairs despite their refusal to negotiate with Afghan civil society like this one.
The UN-organized meeting began on Sunday and is the third of such meetings to be held on Qatar within just over 12 months. However, it is the first meeting for Taliban authorities who took power in Afghanistan in 2021.
The purpose of these discussions was to discuss how best to engage with Afghanistan and have a more unified response involving economic matters and counter-narcotics. Nonetheless, since their comeback no country has recognized their government hence making it difficult for international community how to deal with them.
In February, they rejected an invitation to talks being held in Doha while at March’s event demanded that only Afghans would participate excluding members of Afghan civil society groups. Yes however last time around they got what they wanted. Upon assurance that human rights will be extensively covered by those talks, United States agreed its participation during Monday’s talks.
“According to State Department spokesman Vedant Patel” US representatives “stressed out that if half of population are denied rights then economy of Afghanistan will not grow.”
Accordingly she hopes there will be a fresh thought in regard to Taliban’s women policy when it comes to participating publicly including education of girls’ children as expressed by DiCarlo who chaired the UN negotiations in Qatari Capital.
When main sessions end United Nations agencies can meet other civil society representatives including women groups however Amnesty International Director Agnes Callamard disagreed with giving in Taliban terms which she said “would risk legitimising their gender-based institutionalised system of oppression”.
Headed by Zabihullah Mujahid -spokesman- negotiator from Taliban side urged diplomats to “find ways of interaction and understanding rather than confrontation”, saying that natural disputes in policies should not be ignored. He also demanded an end on sanctions because this was like ganging up against Afghan people.
Russia, which has maintained an embassy in Kabul, hinted it could drop its own sanctions, stating that the Taliban are the de facto authorities and must be recognized as such. DiCarlo said the issue of sanctions was raised but not discussed in depth, as it is a member-state issue whether they will continue certain sanctions or not.
