Agnès Callamard, Secretary-General of Amnesty International, stated that the Doha meeting lacks credibility without the participation of human rights defenders, women, and a focus on human rights issues.
Ahead of the Doha meeting, Callamard emphasised that the rights of Afghan women and girls are non-negotiable and must be central to the UN meeting in Doha. The meeting, hosted by the United Nations, will be held in Qatar on June 30 and July 1.
Callamard stressed that if the human rights crisis in Afghanistan is not properly addressed and if women's rights defenders and other relevant stakeholders from Afghan civil society are not included, the credibility of the meeting will be at risk. She stated that sidelining fundamental human rights discussions is unacceptable.
She pointed out that yielding to the Taliban's conditions to ensure their participation in the Doha meeting risks legitimising a repressive system that, she said, has brutally excluded women from society and stripped them of their fundamental rights.
The Taliban expressed readiness to participate in the Doha meeting after lengthy negotiations with UN representatives. The UN Secretary-General's representative noted that the new format is the only way forward and that this is not the last Doha meeting; the dialogue process will continue.
These remarks come as representatives from several Western countries at the UN Security Council meeting on Afghanistan emphasised on the participation of women and civil society activists in the third Doha meeting.
