By Our Special Correspondent
New Delhi, March 1: Amid rush to normalize the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan by a few nations, a UN expert has drawn attention of the international community to the deteriorating human rights situation in the Islamic nation. The UN expert has said that two and a half years of human rights violations is causing unacceptable suffering.
The UN expert has called for urgent action by the Taliban. He has also sought the support of the international community to give hope to Afghans. The statement has come close on the heels of China opening its diplomatic mission with Afghanistan. China had also recently hosted the Taliban heads in Beijing in confirmation of the recognition of the rule by the Islamic hardliners.
Richard Bennett, UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Afghanistan, said in a statement that “women and girls are being erased from public life”. He also said that “peaceful dissent is not tolerated”. Bennet added: “Violence and the threat of violence are used with impunity to control and instill fear in the population. This is compounded by an economic and humanitarian crisis. Such measures result in the denial of economic, social and cultural rights.”
Bennet also brought to the focus that “public executions and use of corporal punishment by the Taliban” are norms of the day in Afghanistan. He added that there are “credible reports of extrajudicial killings, disappearances and torture of opponents of the regime”. He underlined that the dissenters “face discrimination and marginalization on the lines of marginalised communities such as Hazaras”.
There are hints that a few of the Central Asian nations on the lines of China may normalize relations with the Taliban regime in Afghanistan. The US is largely seen to have abandoned Afghanistan as part of the geostrategic shift in attention. The China-Russia-Iran axis is being feared by the western commentators to help the Taliban regime escape the western scrutiny.
In his report to the Human Rights Council, Bennett spotlighted the Taliban’s increasing violations of women’s and girls’ rights. He noted that “the institutionalised, systematic and widespread nature of gender-based discrimination was unparalleled”. He highlighted “the level of gender persecution and gender apartheid”. Bennet will report further at the Human Rights Council session in June 2024.
Subscribe: youtube.com/@TheRaisinaHills Join: https://whatsapp.com/channel/0029VaFAp9b60eBiuA8v1x0s
About The Author
