The United Nations human rights minister, Michelle Bachelet, announced that on Thursday she made a brief visit to Afghanistan, where she met with representatives of the Taliban regime, not yet recognized by the UN.
Bachelet met with the Taliban deputy prime minister and interior minister, Sirajuddin Haqqani, and also met with representatives of Afghan civil society such as NGO workers, journalists, doctors and teachers, she explained in a statement.
The high commissioner urged the Taliban authorities, who retake central power in Afghanistan on August 15, 2021, to “respect freedom of expression and assembly, as well as the role of the independent press, avoiding the use of violence against critical voices”.
The Taliban’s seizure of power has brought a reduction in armed conflicts in the country, “but the humanitarian and economic crisis could cause many more deaths,” warned Bachelet, recalling that one in three Afghans suffers from food insecurity and high levels of poverty persist. unemployment and internal displacement.
He also stressed that the amnesty granted by the Taliban to those responsible for the previous government is “an important step towards reconciliation”, but recalled that the searches of homes continue in search of former collaborators.
Extrajudicial executions of former government officials, attacks on former judges, human rights defenders and journalists have also been reported, Bachelet lamented.
The women with whom she was able to meet “expressed the need to recover their human rights, including those of free expression and assembly, the freedom to work or live without fear of reprisals against them or their families,” said the high commissioner.
In this sense, the women arbitrarily detained in January for demonstrating have already been released, “but after the treatment they suffered, they have no longer been able to continue the protests in Afghanistan to ask that women’s rights be maintained,” lamented the former president. Chilean.
After her visit, Bachelet asked the Afghan authorities to fulfill their commitment that both boys and girls can have an education, given the planned reopening of schools on March 22. (I)
Source: Eluniverso
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