Afghanistan is already grappling with immense humanitarian and economic challenges and growing instability in the wider region following airstrikes by Israel and the United States in Iran is compounding the situation, the UN’s top envoy in the country told the Security Council on Monday. 

Roza Otunbayeva, the Secretary-General’s Special Representative and head of the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA), said the ongoing missile attacks between Iran and Israel are already having a tangible impact.

“This conflict is already having an effect in Afghanistan, disrupting trade and increasing the prices of basic goods and fuel, and prompting the return of additional Afghans from Iran,” she said, echoing the Secretary-General’s urgent call for de-escalation.

More than 600,000 Afghans have returned from neighbouring Pakistan and Iran this year, and she said UN agencies are preparing for potential cross-border movements from Iran considering the “concerning developments” in the region.

“Returns from Iran alone in the past few days have been over 10,000 per day,” she said.  

Local communities and the de facto Taliban authorities “have made huge efforts to absorb returnees, but without international assistance, there are limits to safe, orderly and peaceful returns.”

Ms. Otunbayeva updated the Council on the UN’s ongoing engagement with Taliban leaders who returned to power nearly four years ago.

This “Comprehensive Approach” aims to achieve an Afghanistan that is at peace with itself and its neighbours, fully reintegrated into the international community, meets its international obligations, and without going through another cycle of violence.

She stressed that it “does not seek to normalize the status quo but rather ensure that multiple key issues of concern – in particular upholding the country’s international obligations – remain at the core of engagement efforts.”

Erasure of women and girls’ rights continues

She said the international community “remains extremely concerned that engagement has not improved the unacceptable situation of Afghan women and girls, promoted inclusive governance, or prevented a marked deterioration in human rights.”

Meanwhile, the de facto authorities have conveyed grievances around frozen assets, sanctions, non-recognition, the need for greater development assistance, and an end to aid dependency.

She noted that the UN will convene meetings of two working groups on counter-narcotics and the private sector to be held in Doha, Qatar, in the coming days, calling this “an important development that gives momentum to multilateral engagement and builds confidence in the value of mutual cooperation.”

Relative stability, restrictive policies

Ms. Otunbayeva said Taliban rule has provided relative stability and security in Afghanistan, promoted modest economic growth and foreign investment, initiated dormant infrastructure projects, and deepened diplomatic ties abroad, particularly in the region.

However, authorities “continue to implement highly restrictive and discriminatory policies on the Afghan people,” as embodied in the “law on the propagation of virtue and prevention of vice,” which took effect last August. 

This law “cemented” the Taliban’s systematic, state-sponsored policies that exclude women and girls from participation in public life, including access to education, employment, freedom of movement, and freedom of expression.

Reintegration at risk

“Through this law, the de facto authorities are continuing to pursue a path that distances Afghanistan from its international obligations and hinders Afghanistan’s eventual reintegration into the international system,” she said.

“We cannot forget the unacceptable situation of Afghan women and girls, even if their continued marginalisation under increased enforcement of more and more decrees no longer generates headlines.”

The ongoing ban on girls’ education beyond primary school “is the clearest sign of the Taliban’s discrimination against women and continues to set Afghanistan apart from the world,” she said, calling once again for the ban to be lifted and for girls and women to again have the right to education.

One in five going hungry

Joyce Msuya, UN Assistant Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, highlighted how funding cuts are impacting Afghanistan, where half of all people require assistance to survive. 

The population faces “persistent and acute humanitarian needs compounded by decades of conflict, entrenched poverty, an ever-harsher climate, severe restrictions on the rights of women and girls and highly constrained funding environment,” she said.

Today, one in every five Afghans is hungry, 3.5 million children are acutely malnourished and roughly 3.7 million children are out of school, including 2.2 million girls over age 11 who are banned from education. Additionally, the maternal mortality rate is over 2.5 times the global average. 

Health facilities shuttered

She said the aid cuts continue to hamper humanitarian response, and 420 health facilities have been forced to shut their doors, affecting more than three million people.

“Almost 300 nutrition sites have closed, depriving 80,000 acutely malnourished children, pregnant women, and new mothers of essential treatment,” she added.

“Despite challenges, and at great risk, our Afghan female colleagues continue to deliver aid, going where others cannot, listening to communities who would otherwise not be heard, and standing by those who might otherwise be forgotten,” she said.

Sima Bahous, Executive Director of UN Women, upheld calls for more diplomacy to address the spiralling crisis in the Middle East and Iran.

“The growing regional and global insecurity will only deepen the hardships faced by Afghan women and girls, compounding poverty, displacement, violence and deprivation,” she warned.

Additionally, the ability of the UN and partners to support Afghan women has been drastically undermined by legal and bureaucratic barriers which make it harder than ever to hire women, let alone reach them, at a time when deep cuts to aid budgets “have ever more devastating consequences.”

“Yet, we stay, and we deliver, as we always have,” said Ms. Bahous, highlighting how UN Women continues to navigate through endless restrictions and negotiate with the Taliban.

“And, Afghan women continue to lead the way,” she added.  “They have opened underground schools; organized in silence; built lives in those slivers of space left to them. They have shown unshakable determination, even when the world faltered.”