Annalena Baerbock, president of the 80th session of the United Nations General Assembly, opened her address to the United Nations Human Rights Council by focusing on the situation of women in Afghanistan, describing it as what some call gender apartheid.
Speaking at the council’s 61st session, the former German foreign minister described the condition of women under Taliban rule as the worst form of structural human rights violation. She said the term “gender apartheid” is increasingly used to characterise the treatment of Afghan women and girls.
Baerbock said she could not stop thinking about discussions within the UN and the wider international community over how to deliver humanitarian aid to Afghanistan while women and girls are barred from work and education.
She criticised efforts to distinguish between different factions of the Taliban, noting that some have suggested figures based in Kabul may be more moderate than those in Kandahar. She said that in some discussions in world capitals and even within UN circles, the fundamental principle of protecting human rights particularly the rights of Afghan women had been sidelined.
Baerbock warned that appeasement in the face of grave human rights violations would not produce results.
Elected in June 2025 to lead the 80th General Assembly session, she said the world must recognise that women’s rights are a benchmark of the condition of societies, noting that women make up half of the global population. If four billion people are not safe, she said, no one can be safe.
She also pointed to what she described as a broader rollback of women’s rights worldwide, saying norms once considered firmly established are now openly challenged or disregarded.
Baerbock called for decisive international action to safeguard human rights. She has previously urged the European Union to impose sanctions on the Taliban over what she described as systematic gender persecution in Afghanistan.
