57° SESSION HUMAN RIGHTS COUNCIL
General Debate item 2
Geneva, 10 of September de 2024
Mr. President:
On behalf of a transregional group of 57 countries, including my own country, Chile, we deliver this joint statement to voice our grave concern regarding the situation of women and girls in Afghanistan.
Last August marked three years since the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan. Three years’ worth of over 70 edicts, directives, and statements targeting women and girls and human rights, including closing spaces for them in their own households and communities and at national level. In this regard, we condemn the so-called “new morality law” adopted by the Taliban, which imposes a lengthy list of repressive provisions on women and girls, that goes as far as to even banning their voices from being heard in public and further restricting their freedom of movement without a male relative.
Mr President,
The Taliban claim to protect the human rights of women and girls, but these measures do not only deny them the enjoyment of their human rights and fundamental freedoms, but they eviscerate their autonomy and strip them of their inherent human dignity.
Disempowering and rendering Afghan women and girls invisible, will only worsen the human rights and humanitarian crisis in the country. The international community should consider taking new steps, commensurate with the gravity of the situation on the ground, to provide robust support to Afghan women and help them raise their voices. This kind of support is critical for sustaining the Afghan women’s movement and countering the systematic erasure of women from public life, which may amount gender persecution.
On the eve of the 30th anniversary of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, we stand with the women and girls of Afghanistan and renew our commitment to their human rights and freedoms. We call to the international community to consider all protection mechanisms available under international human rights law to secure the respect of their rights, in this Council and beyond.
Thank you.
Signatories States:
- Afghanistan
- Albania
- Australia
- Austria
- Belgium
- Bulgaria
- Brazil
- Canada
- Chile
- Colombia
- Costa Rica
- Croatia
- Cyprus
- Czech Republic
- Denmark
- Ecuador
- Estonia
- Finland
- France
- Ghana
- Guatemala
- Greece
- Georgia
- Germany
- Hungary
- Iceland
- Israel
- Japan
- Ireland
- Latvia
- Liechtenstein
- Lithuania
- Luxemburg
- Malta
- Mexico
- Moldova
- Monaco
- Montenegro
- Poland
- Portugal
- Netherlands
- New Zealand
- North Macedonia
- Norway
- Panama
- Republic of Korea
- Romania
- Slovakia
- Slovenia
- Spain
- South Africa
- Sweden
- Switzerland
- United Kingdom
- Ukraine
- United States
- Uruguay