Moscow Consultative Meeting Will Focus on National Reconciliation in Afghanistan

The United Nations General Assembly approved a resolution on Afghanistan on Wednesday.

Faiq added that the Taliban continue to violate human rights and suppress the fundamental rights and freedom of all Afghan people, including women and girls, human rights activists, and journalists.

The Afghanistan Permanent Representative to the UN emphasised that there are serious concerns about the increasing security threats caused by the presence of terrorist groups in Afghanistan.

The UN General Assembly resolution on Afghanistan was approved with the support of 116 countries. The resolution expressed concerns about the dire economic and humanitarian situation, the continuation of violence, and the presence of terrorist groups in Afghanistan after the Taliban took over the country last year.

China and Russia didn’t support the resolution, but urged the US to release the frozen funds of the Central Bank of Afghanistan.

In the resolution, UN member states urged the Taliban to grant Afghan women and girls all their rights and civil liberties. These countries expressed their concern regarding the current situation of women, especially the closure of girls' schools, the economy, and job opportunities in Afghanistan.

Decker added that Afghan women want their rights guaranteed and that the US wants the same for women in Afghanistan.

She urged Afghan women to "stay strong so that when they return to Afghanistan, they can help contribute to a future that respects the rights of all Afghans".

Earlier, Decker had announced that she would visit Pakistan to support Afghans and meet and speak to them.

The senior US diplomat has met Afghan women in Pakistan as most of them have been forced to leave the country after the Taliban came to power in August 2021.

Since taking over Afghanistan, the Taliban have imposed wide-ranging restrictions on women in the fields of education, work, and other social and political spheres.

The United Nations Mine Action Service (UNMAS) had previously said that it would take at least 10 years to clear Afghanistan of mines.

UNMAS has also expressed concern about the increase in victims due to the explosion of mines and unexploded ordnance in Afghanistan.

The UN de-mining agency added that at least 50 million dollars are needed for mine clearance in Afghanistan.

The Taliban, who have been a driving factor in planting mines across Afghanistan in the past twenty years, have promised the United Nations that they will cooperate with the process of clearing the country of mines.

District 15 is a Tajik-dominated area in Kabul where the Taliban first implemented their mandatory surveillance programme.

Many analysts believe that with widespread poverty affecting the people, most Afghan citizens in Kabul cannot afford to buy and install a security camera.

Zadran, however, said that installing security cameras is not mandatory.

Popalzai's colleagues in the protest movement told Afghanistan International that after her detention, they have received no information about her whereabouts.

Popalzai’s detention comes at a time when last week, another women rights activist, Zarifa Yaqoobi, and four of her colleagues had been detained by the Taliban in western Kabul.

The Taliban detained the five activists during a press conference where they were announcing an Afghan Women’s rights group in Kabul.

Many international organisations, including the United Nations, have reacted to Yaqoobi’s arrest and demanded her immediate release.

After the arrest of Yaqoobi, the Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said that the women’s rights activists receive orders from outside Afghanistan to echo trust deficit with the Taliban regime.