The absence of female panel members in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s ADR committees and the exclusion of non-Muslim members make clear that what may appear as decentralised and accessible justice may in practice perpetuate discrimination.
While the gathering in Belém sets the tone for two weeks of negotiations, the key test will be whether developed countries step up to match rhetoric with financial, technological and capacity-building support. India and its partners argue that ambition without means is hollow.
Without urgent action, environmental collapse could lock Afghanistan into a vicious cycle of poverty, migration, and instability for generations to come. The war may have ended for now, but the battle to save Afghanistan’s environment, and the lives it sustains, is only beginning.
In a sobering assessment released this week, the United Nations has painted a complex portrait of Afghanistan under Taliban governance, where a dramatic increase in security incidents coincides with fragile stability, devastating cross-border violence with Pakistan, and a deepening humanitarian and human rights crisis.