RASC News Agency: Following Rosa Otunbayeva’s endorsement of the exclusion of women from the Doha meeting, Afghanistani women activists have accused the UN diplomat of whitewashing the Taliban’s actions. On Sunday, June 23, a group of protesting women issued a statement declaring that Otunbayeva’s support for the absence of women at the third Doha meeting violates international laws.
These women accused Otunbayeva, the UN Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Afghanistan, of normalizing the Taliban’s practices and labeled her remarks as a “betrayal” to Afghanistani women and girls. On Friday, June 21, Otunbayeva told reporters at a UN Security Council meeting that despite the absence of Afghanistani women, their demands would be addressed by the special representatives from 22 countries during the third Doha meeting with the Taliban.
The protesting women emphasized that holding the third Doha meeting without the presence of their representatives is unacceptable, given the widespread human rights violations by the Taliban against women and girls. One of the conditions for the Taliban’s participation in the third Doha meeting is the exclusion of representatives of Afghanistani women protesters.
The absence of Afghanistani women at the Doha meeting has been met with severe criticism from human rights organizations. Agnes Callamard, Secretary-General of Amnesty International, stated that if the human rights crisis in Afghanistan is not adequately addressed and if women human rights defenders and other civil society stakeholders are not included, the credibility of the meeting will be undermined.
Previously, Naseer Ahmad Faiq, Afghanistan’s Acting Permanent Representative to the UN, described the exclusion of women from the Doha meeting agenda as disappointing. Nevertheless, the third Doha meeting with the participation of the Taliban is scheduled to take place later this month in Qatar.
