Bayan News – Coinciding with widespread protests over the lack of representation of women and civil society activists at the third Doha conference, UN officials say they are not treating the Taliban as the official government of Afghanistan.
Farhan Haq, the UN Deputy Spokesman, said in a press conference on Tuesday (June 18) that the Taliban are only the governing authorities in Afghanistan.
Haq said, “We want to make sure that the rights of women in Afghan society are respected in the way they are needed to be respected everywhere in the world.”
The UN Deputy Spokesman also termed the gender apartheid in Afghanistan as a major concern.
He clarified, “We are dealing with them as the governing authorities, but they are not being treated as the recognized government of Afghanistan.”
These remarks come a day after the latest report by Richard Bennet, the UN Special Rapporteur on human rights, who described the human rights situation of Afghan women as dire in the UN Human Rights Council meeting.
Bennet added that violence against Afghan women has intensified and become widespread.
