RASC: The United Nations Human Rights Council, expressing concern over the dire situation of human rights in Afghanistan, said that the Taliban have destroyed the basic rights of Afghanistani women and girls.
Volker Turk, the High Commissioner of the United Nations Human Rights Council, said on Monday, June 19, at the council’s 50th meeting, that the systematic elimination of women and girls by the Taliban is unprecedented in the world.
He added that the exclusion of women from higher education is a public violation of Afghanistan’s responsibility to international laws, and women and girls’ access to education at all levels without discrimination is their fundamental and undeniable right.
This senior United Nations official called for the immediate cancellation of the decision of the Taliban to exclude women from higher education.
In addition, human rights experts have accused the Taliban of gender apartheid in a separate meeting to examine the rights of women and girls in Afghanistan.
Richard Bennett, the UN Human Rights Council’s special rapporteur for Afghanistan, has called on the world to recognize gender apartheid by the Taliban as an international crime and hold the group accountable for imposing restrictions on women.
The Taliban have not yet commented on the statements of the participants of the Human Rights Council meeting.
These concerns are expressed while the Taliban, after taking control of Afghanistan, blocked schools above the sixth grade and universities for girls and also prohibited them from working in government offices and international organizations.