UN Expert Warns Against Normalizing Taliban Rule, Urges Global Stand for Afghan Women
UNITED NATIONS, Oct. 31 — A United Nations human rights expert has cautioned world governments against restoring ties with Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers, warning that such moves risk legitimizing oppression and worsening the country’s already dire human rights crisis, according to APP.
Richard Bennett, the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Afghanistan, told the General Assembly that conditions in the country “continue to deteriorate with few grounds for optimism.”
He painted a bleak picture of intensifying gender persecution, public punishments, enforced disappearances, and violence against former officials despite the Taliban’s declared amnesty. Media outlets and civil society groups, he said, are facing unprecedented restrictions, while ethnic and religious minorities; particularly Hazara communities; are suffering forced evictions and discrimination.
Bennett underscored that not a single Taliban edict curtailing women’s rights has been reversed. “Many Afghan women are denied their right to work,” he said, noting that even female UN employees have been barred from entering UN compounds; “a serious breach of fundamental rights and the UN Charter’s principles of equality and non-discrimination.”
He also condemned the steep drop in humanitarian and civil society funding, warning that it has stripped away “the last lines of protection” for millions enduring hunger and deprivation. Bennett urged governments to restore long-term aid, especially for Afghan and women-led organizations that continue to serve under dangerous conditions.
Expressing alarm over the mass forced return of Afghan refugees from neighboring countries, he reminded states of their legal duty under international law not to return people to places where they face persecution, a principle known as non refoulement.
Despite the grim outlook, Bennett pointed to glimmers of accountability, including International Criminal Court warrants for senior Taliban figures and a new Human Rights Council mechanism to preserve evidence of war crimes.
“Afghanistan is not a lost cause,” Bennett said. “Turning away now would not only betray the Afghan people; it would erode the very foundations of international justice.”
