Hardeep Singh

Why is the UN’s Human Rights Council ignoring the Taliban’s atrocities?

(Photo: Getty)

The United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) held its thirty-first special session this week to address the ‘serious human rights concerns and situation in Afghanistan’. This discussion was led by the Taliban friendly Pakistan and a copy of the draft resolution was shared on Twitter by the brilliant Hillel Neuer, international lawyer and executive director of United Nations Watch.

These documents make for an interesting but rather revealing read. On the current refugee problem, the draft refers to, ‘the generous hospitality demonstrated by Afghanistan’s neighbours’ and goes on to urge ‘the international community to assist Iran and Pakistan as the major host countries to address the refugee problem’. A thumbs up for Pakistan and Iran there then. Quite remarkably, the resolution goes on to blame the current humanitarian crisis not on its engineers, the Taliban, but rather on ‘prolonged conflicts and military interventions in Afghanistan’ – pointing implicitly to the US and its Western allies. In fact, the document is so farcical, that the Taliban are not even mentioned a single time in the resolution.

Neuer expresses the frustrations of many when he says that ‘In Afghanistan millions live in fear of the Taliban terrorists who have taken over the country. Here in Geneva, the UNHRC meets shortly on Afghanistan to adopt one of its weakest-ever resolutions. Better to scrap the session than send message of appeasement to the Taliban.’

In a separate post he writes, ‘If today’s UNHRC session and draft resolution on Afghanistan are any guide of what is to come, the UN and the international community are adopting a policy of appeasement toward the Taliban, who may well be given Afghanistan’s seat on the UN Women’s Rights Commission.’

The words ‘perish the thought’ spring to mind, but based on the current trajectory and what indeed does appear to be shameful appeasement of the Taliban’s tyrannical and horrendous re-emergence, it doesn’t bode well for the organisation.

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