Cyprus has co-signed, together with 54 other UN member states, a joint declaration on respect for human rights worldwide and particularly in Afghanistan. The Slovenian Foreign Minister, Vanja Fajon, delivered the declaration.
The joint declaration describes Afghanistan as a country with “enormous human resources”, but at the same time with “one of the most dramatic human rights records worldwide” due to Taliban policies. The member states denounce that women and girls face “an institutionalised system of segregation, exclusion and degradation of their dignity”.
As underlined, restrictions on education, work, freedom of movement and public life “do not merely deprive women of their future, but also deprive Afghanistan of their contribution to economic and social development”. It is also stressed that this policy constitutes “a profound attack not only on human rights, but also on the international standards that the global community has built”.
The countries also denounce “the repression of journalists and civil society, the persecution of ethnic and religious minorities, public executions, corporal punishment and arbitrary arrests”, which, as noted, “continue with complete impunity”.
The 54 states and the EU call on the Taliban “to immediately cease and reverse all systematic human rights violations, particularly all restrictions against women and girls”, and to allow “the unimpeded operation of independent national and international monitoring and accountability mechanisms”.
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