Monthly Action Points (MAP) for the Security Council: June 2025

Afghanistan

Afghanistan remains the most serious women’s rights crisis in the world as the Taliban impose escalating policies of gender-based discrimination intended to erase women and girls from public life. The Taliban’s intensifying enforcement of bans on women working for NGOs and the UN increasingly hinders humanitarian aid delivery, especially to women and girls. Cuts to humanitarian funding also threaten women and girls’ access to healthcare, including sexual and reproductive health (SRH) services. Women and girls are also unsafe at home, as the Taliban have dismantled all systems to respond to gender-based violence (GBV) and have compelled men to police the conduct of their female relatives. The Taliban continue to target and arbitrarily detain women activists, journalists, human rights defenders (WHRDs) and protestors, as well as women and girls accused of violating the Taliban’s morality laws, including its dress code; they face serious abuses in custody including torture and sexual violence. Women and girls from minority ethnic and religious groups; lesbian, bisexual and queer (LBQ) women; older women; women who are heads of households; and women and girls with disabilities also face intersecting forms of discrimination. These widespread, systematic and grave violations of the rights of women, girls and LGBTIQ people may amount to gender persecution, a crime against humanity. Afghan women and international experts also increasingly describe the situation as gender apartheid and have called for codification of gender apartheid as a crime against humanity. Meanwhile, Afghan refugees face deportation and the termination of protection by member states, despite ongoing persecution and discrimination targeting Afghan women.

The UN-led “Doha process,” an outcome of the independent assessment requested by Resolution 2679 (2023) to facilitate structured engagement between the international community and the Taliban, has thus far failed to prioritize women’s rights or meaningfully include Afghan women, despite the Council’s explicit request in Resolution 2721 (2023) to ensure the full, equal, meaningful and safe participation of Afghan women throughout the process, and for Afghanistan to meet its international obligations. Afghan WHRDs and civil society continue to express serious concerns that current UN efforts to develop a “roadmap” for such engagement, including through the “Mosaic Process,” risk continued exclusion of Afghan women, deprioritization of their rights and further normalization of the Taliban’s abuses.
The Security Council should:

• Demand that the Taliban immediately reverse all policies and practices that prevent the full enjoyment of all women’s human rights in accordance with Afghanistan’s international obligations, including the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) and relevant Security Council resolutions.
• As per Resolutions 2593 (2021), 2679 (2023), 2681 (2023), 2721 (2023), and all resolutions on women, peace and security, demand the protection of women’s rights and the full, equal, meaningful and safe participation of diverse Afghan women and LGBTIQ people, especially WHRDs, peacebuilders and victims of gender-based crimes, in all international discussions and outcomes about Afghanistan’s future, including all aspects of the “Doha Process.” • Support all efforts to seek accountability for all international crimes, including gender-based crimes, such as a case against Afghanistan for violations of CEDAW at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) and the creation of a UN accountability mechanism to document and preserve evidence of international crimes committed in Afghanistan.
• Call on the Taliban to ensure that all UN entities can fully discharge their mandates without hindrance.
• Urge donors to fully fund the humanitarian response and allocate increased flexible and direct funding to Afghan women-led civil society and humanitarian organizations. Urge all actors to ensure safe, gender-responsive and non-discriminatory humanitarian delivery, with women’s full and equal participation and leadership.
• Call on the Taliban to immediately stop targeting human rights defenders (HRDs), peacebuilders and journalists, and release all who have been arbitrarily arrested and detained.
• Urge all Member States to refrain from forcibly returning refugees and asylum seekers to Afghanistan and to create and expand pathways to safe resettlement for Afghans who are experiencing persecution in Afghanistan, including WHRDs.