Category: Afghanistan

On Tuesday, the Taliban’s leader Mullah Mohammed Omar announced that the publication of any information in opposition to the Taliban is a crime punished by a 5-year jail sentence. This comes in response to reports that the security of foreign aid workers in Afghanistan is not guaranteed. Omar stated that “Incorrect information that the security […]

The United Nations Human Rights Commission adopted a resolution condemning “widespread” human rights violations in Afghanistan Friday. The resolution was adopted by consensus and particularly stressed the abuse of women and girls by the fundamentalist Taliban regime. The commission urged warring Afghan factions to end all human rights violations “without delay” and to repeal all […]

Dr. Komal Hossain, U.N. Special Rapporteur to Afghanistan, presented a report on the status of human rights in Afghanistan to the 55th Session of the U.N. Human Rights Commission yesterday in Geneva. Hossain reported that Taliban officials have made no significant changes regarding women’s human rights. At a news conference, he characterized the situation for […]

Last August, forty United Nations foreign staff members were withdrawn from Afghanistan after Carmine Calo, a military advisor to the United Nations, was murdered in Kabul. Calo was murdered in retaliation for U.S. missile raids. The U.N. is now preparing to return a limited number of its international staff to Afghanistan. Before all employees return […]

The U.N. has established a Gender Coordinating Unit for Afghanistan which will establish gender policy for the area together with other agencies. A human rights adviser has also been appointed, and a gender advisor will begin work there next month. Diplomats fear that the Taliban will enter into a confrontation with the U.N. if the […]

In a stunning victory for the Feminist Majority’s “Stop Gender Apartheid in Afghanistan!” campaign, Unocal Corporation has withdrawn its support from plans to build an $8 billion dollar oil pipeline through Afghanistan. The New York Times reported Saturday that low oil prices, pressure from feminist groups, and concern over the Taliban’s harboring of suspected terrorist […]

The Taliban militia have come to an agreement to allow an United Nations assessment team access to the Bamiyan province in Afghanistan to determine the need for winter food aid. Deep snows throughout Bamiyan province make access to this central region difficult. Winter conditions last year cut off supplies to the region which led to […]

Bridas, an independent energy company in Argentina, is fully prepared to go ahead with their pipeline project in Afghanistan as soon as Taliban officials sign the agreement. The pipeline will cover 790 miles of land from the Dauletabad gas fields in southern Turkmenistan to Multan in western Pakistan; 464 miles will pass through Afghanistan. Bridas’ […]

Physicians for Human Rights published a recent study on the conditions Afghanistan women have suffered under Taliban rule. Its findings show that women in Afghanistan continually face heinous abuse and are suffering from lack of health care and education. “We are not aware of any place in the world in recent history where women have […]

After most of the aid agencies in Kabul pulled out, the Taliban announced that people should not worry because the UN would fill the void. The UN, however, says that the agency simply does not have the resources to fulfill the need created by the aid pullout. UN aid is actually being reduced to show […]

Two local U.N. aid workers in Jalalabad were killed in a Taliban-controlled area of Afghanistan after being kidnapped on July 13. The U.N. began investigating the deaths after the men’s bodies were found this weekend. Mohammed Nazir Habibi, age forty-nine, worked for the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees. Mohammed Hasidim Bahsaryar, age fifty-five, worked for […]