UN Geneva - Multimedia Newsroom : OHCHR Special Procedures - Press Conference: Special Rapporteur on human rights in Afghanistan

Good afternoon, everyone, and thank you for joining us at this press briefing today.

Today's briefing will be by Mr Richard Bennett, who is a Special Rapporteur on the human rights situation in Afghanistan.

The Special Rapporteur presented his latest report to the Human Rights Council yesterday.

Joining Mr Bennett on the podium today are two Afghan activists, and I will briefly introduce them both.

Doctor Surya Dalil, to my left, is an Afghan physician, public health expert and diplomat with extensive experience in health leadership, humanitarian work and international representation.

She served as Acting Minister of Public Health from 2010 to 2014 and then Minister of Public Health of Afghanistan from 2012 to 2014, where she LED efforts to improve healthcare access and reduce maternal and child mortality rates.

Miss Nazifa Jalali, further to my left, is a human rights activist, religious scholar and writer originally from Zabul, Afghanistan.

She's the Deputy Director of the Community Relief Care Organisation and member of the HRD Plus Network, a network of human rights activists and advocates.

She's worked in 28 provinces of Afghanistan with national and international NGOs.

We will begin with brief opening statements from the Special Rapporteur and then the other speakers and move on to your questions.

Special abiter, you have the floor.

[Other language spoken]

I think we have some Afghan journalists online.

Thank you, Teresa, for your introduction and Many thanks to members of the press for joining this briefing.

My intention is to brief you about the report I presented to the Human Rights Council yesterday on the right to health for Afghan women and girls.

But there have been developments that I'm sure you're aware of in the last 24 hours with armed conflict between Pakistan and Afghanistan, particularly during the night last night.

And I have already tweeted, posted on X.

And I know that the Secretary General and the High Commissioner have done similarly, made statements calling for restraint, calling for respect for international human rights and humanitarian law, and in particular to for the protection of civilians from harm.

As we know, when conflict escalates, it's usually civilians and often it's women and young people who are the primary civilian victims.

So certainly a call for a de escalation.

Regarding my report, I didn't make a general assessment of the human rights situation.

That was what the High Commissioner did.

We, we, we had a joint presentation yesterday.

Rather, I'm presenting a new report as mandated by the Council, and it's on the right to health of women and girls in Afghanistan, and particularly on the barriers to and challenges of accessing healthcare and also underlying issues such as nutrition, child health and intersection.

Challenges faced by particular groups such as women alone or women heading households, religious and ethnic minorities, older people, those living with disabilities or those living in remote and rural areas.

And I'm sounding the alarm.

Afghanistan faces a deepening health crisis driven by the Taliban's ongoing attack on the rights of women and girls and a sharp drop in international funding.

My report finds that the Taliban is systematically restricting access to healthcare for women and girls by imposing gender oppressive policies, including restrictions on freedom of movement, the right to work, medical education, in fact all education and the imposition of gender segregation in health facilities.

These policies are not isolated measures.

If they form an institutionalised system of gender discrimination that denies women and girls autonomy over their own bodies, health and futures, and provide evidence that the Taliban is committing crimes against humanity.

In my view the system was already fragile after decades of conflict, poverty and under investment, as well as over reliance on donor support.

But the current crisis can't be explained by those factors alone.

It's clear that the Taliban's policies have created new barriers that prevent women and girls from accessing essential services.

I want to especially express concern about the ban on medical education for women, which has been in place since 2024.

It's effectively shut down the pipeline of new women health professionals.

And indeed at the Human Rights Council yesterday, one of those trainee doctors spoke directly to the council.

Her training having ended in 24, she was forced to leave the country to continue to train in medicine.

She is a direct survivor of of that policy.

[Other language spoken]

It puts the entire health system in jeopardy and unless reversed, it will lead to unnecessary suffering, illness and death.

It could even amount to femicide.

The the cuts to international funding, not restricted to Afghanistan, but including Afghanistan are also undermining life saving programmes and seriously direct disrupting service delivery, stretching an already fragile system to breaking point, which could turn into a full scale scale health catastrophe, especially for women and girls.

I'll leave that there and I'm you may be wondering what can be done and perhaps when I answer questions I will address what can be done.

But I do want to touch on one other issue that has come up in the last few weeks since January.

You may recall that in mid 2024 the Taliban introduced a law on the promotion of virtue and the prevention of vice.

We were highly critical of that and I presented a specific report to the Council on that at this session last year.

It really focused on and and clamped down further on discrimination against women and girls as well as other groups, including ethnic and religious minorities.

So coming on top of that and many other discriminatory and concerning decrees.

Last month the Taliban introduced what's been called criminal rules of courts.

We are studying them.

They raise very significant concerns and I will be issuing in, in writing something publicly about them soon.

The concerns include the absence of due process and fair trial rights, expanded use of capital and corporal punishment, infringements on fundamental freedoms, serious impacts on vulnerable groups, especially marginalised minority civil society, human rights defenders, women, LGBT groups and in particular these, these, this, these rules appear to endorse violence against women.

They are creating a situation where unless the violence reaches a particular threshold described as broken bones or serious bruising, there are no penalties for husbands or family members carrying out that violence.

Really shocking in the 21st century.

Other shocking elements are stratification of society so that different classes appear to be treated differently before the courts and even a reference that appears to to recognise slavery.

So this is something that will be continually monitored.

I know there are commentaries already on this.

And while my report is on the right to health and that is extremely serious, I felt it necessary to mention that as well.

I want to end, since we're going to hear from Afghan women next by saying two things about that.

The first is that the restrictions on Afghan women are now impacting even on women working for the United Nations in Afghanistan.

They are not allowed to go to the UN compounds, although they have jobs.

I I believe there's about 400 just in Kabul.

This is is not only discriminatory and unacceptable, but it impacts the UNS capacity to operate effectively and certainly is not in accordance with UN values or its own charter.

Secondly, I want to end on a slightly more positive note.

Afghan women have never stopped and will never stop serving their communities.

They may they, It's often said they're resilient, that's true.

But they are are incredibly determined and capable.

And they tell me and tell others and I completely accept this, that, that what they need is not sympathy.

What they need is solidarity, support and action and the space to work in the health sector, in fact in every sector, safely and with dignity.

And it's it's my honour to stand with them.

[Other language spoken]

We will hear from Doctor Delia now.

Thank you very much.

[Other language spoken]

Greetings, colleagues.

First of all, I want to express my acknowledgement and appreciation of health workforce, female and male physicians, nurses, midwives, pharmacists, lab technicians, CHWS or community health workers working inside Afghanistan, in health facilities, in clinics and in hospitals.

Their work is important in saving lives and supporting health and well-being.

[Other language spoken]

Your report has been acknowledged in the report that was issued this week by the special reporter, Mr Richard Bennett, on right to health of women and girls in Afghanistan.

I want to start with a quote from a practising physician who is currently inside the country.

[Other language spoken]

A health system cannot survive if half of its potential workforce is excluded.

If the situation continues in this direction, the consequences will not only affect women and men and families today, but they will also affect generations.

So the question before us is what can be done?

And I would like to put my thoughts into 3 categories of actions.

They're interrelated, they're practical, and they're immediate.

1st is keeping Afghanistan on the agenda and amplifying the voices of Afghanistan, women and girls.

Every international forum should have Afghanistan's human rights crisis, particularly the gender apartheid, firmly on its agenda.

In every interaction with the Taliban, conditions must be clear and consistent, restore fundamental rights, ensure women's freedom of movement and right to work, including for female United Nations national staff member who have been forbidden from work since September last year, and the repeal of the recent Criminal Procedure Code for courts.

But pressure alone is not enough.

Centring and amplifying the voices of women from Afghanistan is important.

When women from Afghanistan speak on international platforms, we dismantle the dangerous narrative that repression is inevitable, that it's cultural or permanent.

It's not inevitable, it's a political choice and political choices can be reverted.

2nd Ave for Action is deliver people centred humanitarian assistance to support grassroots resilience and foster agency and courage.

Supporting civil society organisations, delivering healthcare, education, food and shelter, keeping clinics open, ensuring that women health workers can serve their communities and creative.

Create alternative learning pathways for girls and boys such as underground community classes, online learnings, scholarship programmes to prevent a lost generation.

Use innovative tools including cash transfers to women and AI, verified monitoring and aid tracking to help expose and reduce Talibans interference and systematic abuses.

Assist families returning from Iran and Pakistan in in rebuilding their lives.

Third, avenues for action is pursue targeted measures and individualised accountability.

Sanctions and asset freezes must ensure that the architecture of repression is clearly named, documented and constrained.

Accountability must be individualised and focused on those who design and enforce repressive policies, such as Taliban's supreme leader, officials within the justice apparatus, the Ministry of Morality Enforcement and Ministry of Higher Education, just to name a few.

Recent developments on accountability should be supported.

The newly established Independent Investigative Mechanism for Afghanistan should be swiftly operationalised and fully funded.

Meanwhile, the crime of gender apartheid should be codified as a crime against humanity.

Over time, these accountability efforts help break cycles of impunity and lay the foundation for a more just and peaceful future.

We know that there's no peace without justice.

Afghanistan is a story of fall and rise, a story in which in which out of destruction comes renewal, out of darkness comes light.

And we are courage and perseverance endure.

Thank you very much.

Thank you, Doctor Ali.

Mr Ali, please, do you have the floor?

[Other language spoken]

That's perfect.

Thank you, Richard, for your comprehensive report.

And Miss Reya Dalil, thank you so much for the strong recommendations.

Please allow me to begin with the key findings of our research on Women's Health conducted across 20 provinces between 2025 and 2026.

Based off interviews with women beneficiaries and female health workers inside Afghanistan, our findings show severe structural barriers to healthcare.

In many rural districts, there is an acute shortage of clinics, medicines and female stuff.

Pregnant women are often unable to reach facilities in time due to the poor Rd lack of the transport and mahram restrictions that delay or prevent treatment.

In remote mountains area women are still carried carried for hours on stray stretchers or animal and emergency referrals frequently fail.

In practise, access to healthcare in determined more by mobility in control than by medical need.

We also documented A profound mental health crisis.

88 out of 100 women interviewed reported serious psychological distress, including depression and anxiety, chronic fear and loss of hope.

Girls and young girls and young women are the most affected, driven by movement restrictions, loss of education and work, constant surveillance and the near absence of mental health services.

Also, female health workers themselves face systematic barriers.

Doctors, nurses and midwives reported harassment, intimidation.

Mandatory mahram requirements in some provinces and strict dress enforcement.

These restrictions have already led the Kilini closer and dismantles directly reducing woman's access to care.

Beyond health, the border situation remains deeply concerning.

Since bans on woman's work in education, economic dependence has increased, contributing to rising the mistake violence, forced marriages and child marriages also a child abuses within the panel framework imposed by the Taliban.

These abuses persist without effective protection or accountability.

What are What we are witnessing is not a series of isolated incidents, but the result of structural policies that are systematically excluding women from public life.

We therefore call on the UN Human Rights Council and on the international community to urgently operationalise the evidence collection mechanism with adequate resources, ensure conditioned independent monitoring and refrain from any normalisation or recognition of the de facto authorities unless there is fall complaint with the international human rights standards, particularly the rights of women and girls and marginalised communities in Afghanistan.

[Other language spoken]

Thank you very much and thank you to all our speakers.

We're open for questions now.

Please state your name and organisation before asking a question.

[Other language spoken]

Mr Bennett on on the escalation between Afghanistan and and Pakistan.

Can I just ask you for your, your thoughts on this?

And particularly if, if this goes on, what will be the impact on, on civilians and, and their rights?

And then a second question on a, on, on women medical professionals and the, the blocking of the pipeline that that you spoke about.

If you could tell us a bit more about what the what the impacts will be further down that pipeline.

Will it result in women being reluctant to to see male doctors, for example?

And will that then result in women suffering from illnesses that they wouldn't otherwise have suffered from?

So if you could tell us a bit more about that.

[Other language spoken]

Thank you, Robin.

I think we've known that the there have been tensions between Afghanistan and Pakistan for some time there.

There was in fact incidents that have caused civilian casualties on the border last year, several months ago.

And in fact, both countries have have been partly responsible, but certainly the tensions have been ratcheting up.

And last night, as I mentioned earlier, there were appeared to be air strikes from Pakistan and and possibly ground fighting it seems as well in certain parts of eastern Afghanistan and and certainly belligerent rhetoric from both sides.

And as mentioned before, I call for for de escalation, for calm, for protection of civilians.

If this continues, we would have great concern about the situation of civilians and I would also be concerned whether this would exacerbate an already difficult refugee situation.

The border between Afghanistan and Pakistan has been closed now for some months and that has is already an illustration of tensions and has caused difficulties, particularly in Afghanistan.

And as I mentioned yesterday, there have been, there's been a huge inflow of refugees from neighbouring countries, particularly Pakistan and Iran in recent years.

And even in 25, there were 2.7 million from those two countries.

I was recently in Pakistan, spoke to Afghans there who are extremely fearful of their futures.

They believe that returning to Afghanistan will not only be a life in poverty, but for certain groups, human rights defenders, journalists, members of security for previous government security forces, they run a real risk of violent retaliatory attacks.

And we have been seeing an uptick in those in in in recent months.

So overall the the whole situation needs to be the tensions need to be reduced.

This kind of violence on both sides is unhelpful and we look to kind of cool heads and and hopefully third parties will be listened to including the UN in in this respect.

On the other question, I think it's even worse than you, you mentioned in a way, Robin, because not everywhere, but in large parts of the country, medical treatment is segregated.

So women must be treated by other women and men by men.

There's overall a reduction in in medical workers, not just doctors.

We're talking midwives, nurses, the whole health worker system.

There's also been, in addition to these restrictions, an outflow of qualified people who have decided to leave.

So there's a, you know, a brain drain and one of them who spoke to the council yesterday, young woman.

So already I think we are seeing the impact and there's also not just the treatment, it's that getting to the treatment is problematic.

There's such restrictions on freedom of movement and and my colleagues talks about the Maharam requirement that many women don't have Maharam so they can't get to treatment.

There's also increasingly strict clothing hijab requirements which which create difficulty.

So already we are seeing impacts including on on child and maternal health.

And as time goes on and training is not allowed.

And it's not only the training of new doctors and new nurses, it's the continuing education that is also being banned for women.

So they won't be able to keep up with the with the latest developments.

And I just want to say final thing about, you know how and others have recognised this, you particular the Soraya Afghan health workers do show extraordinary courage and and commitment caring for their communities under extremely difficult and restrictive conditions.

It's necessary for the international community to stand with them.

The Taliban's restrictions must be reversed, otherwise they will be killing people, and similarly, the funding cuts by the international community need to be reversed as well, because that also has dire and fatal consequences at times.

[Other language spoken]

I am Antonio Brotto from Spanish news agency FA.

My question is also about escalation between Afghanistan and Pakistan.

I wonder if you have information on the impact on civilians and civilian infrastructure.

And do you think this could aggravate the humanitarian emergency not only in Afghanistan but also in in the whole region?

[Other language spoken]

I'm not on the ground, but my but, but UNAMA has been reporting regularly on the impact on civilians and civilian infrastructure in the, in their reports in, in, in, in recent weeks, there's been a number of civilians impacted.

I think they're reported 15 killed in some clashes, some attacks last week and I noted that eight of those were children.

And so I think the numbers are appeared to be escalating.

I don't have much information about the impact of the the fighting last night.

There were some reports early this morning that there were no casualties, but those very early reports and, and maybe OHCHR also has some updates on on that.

We'll certainly be looking for it.

The whole region, as you mentioned, Antonio is extremely tense.

It is no secret about the tension on the other border with Iran.

And so it it's, it's important that the restraint is shown throughout the region.

Afghanistan in a way is in is caught in the middle.

Certainly the manner in which Afghanistan is being governed itself is causing concerns, but they are also part of geopolitical tensions that may spill over.

And who suffers from that?

[Other language spoken]

We'll just go to a question online from.

[Other language spoken]

My name is Alligatori.

[Other language spoken]

I was wondering, I mean, Taliban, they will also have families.

Do their repressive laws have an impact concerning health on their families?

I can, I could imagine that maybe they don't want to see their wives daughters being dying because there is no doctor.

[Other language spoken]

The new mechanism that was created for investigation, did you did it already start to work to bring human rights regulators to the ICC?

[Other language spoken]

Thank you so much for your very important question.

Actually, the restrictions on the healthcare and health section workers that the Taliban are implementing, it is not effecting on their own families.

Because as I'm working on the ground with the the people, based off our findings and information, their families are allowed to travel for medical treatments to some countries, for example, to Qatar, to Saudi Arabia and some other countries that to Turkey even yeah, to Turkey.

And before their problem with the Pakistan, they travel to Pakistan because most of the Taliban's leader, their families are not living inside Afghanistan.

Most of the leaders of the Taliban, they have properties and outside Afghanistan, they can go for a medical treatments to outside Afghanistan.

And our findings shows that there is no any effect of these restrictions even in the education sector, not only in the health sector, because most, most of their daughters are students of universities in Qatar and Saudi Arabia and Turkey.

Before in Pakistan still some of the Taliban's leader that they have good relationship with the Pakistan because the Taliban are divided in two or three groups.

Of course, all of them they believe one ideology, but they divided in two or three groups.

Some of them they have good relationship with Iran, some of them they have good relationship, for example, with Pakistan.

And these the second group still they have their families in Pakistan, their girls are going to colleges and universities and schools.

So there is no effect on their families, especially on their daughters.

[Other language spoken]

And Sir, if I could just say one thing about the investigative mechanism, first of all, to say that from my mandate, I supported the establishment of this mechanism by the Human Rights Council last October.

But I wanted to let you know that the Secretary General will be, I understand, making a statement on its operationalisation or the steps towards operationalisation later this afternoon.

So I don't have any more comments on on it.

It's really just let's wait and hear what the Secretary General says.

[Other language spoken]

Online, we have Emma Fach from writers.

Oh, good afternoon.

Thank you for this.

Mr Bennett, can you elaborate a bit more on what will happen given you?

You said women must be treated by women and men by men.

So if women can't train as doctors, will we get to a stage where women won't have access to medical care at all down the line?

Is this where we're going?

Is that what you fear?

And is that what you meant by femicide?

[Other language spoken]

And specifically, can you give me a few examples of women who need treatment for different conditions and haven't been able to get it and have just been put in peril?

And finally, maybe a question for Miss Dalil.

What portion of healthcare workers were actually women before the Taliban came back, Just so I can get an idea of what portion of the population we're talking about?

[Other language spoken]

Thank you for the question.

With regards to clinical care segregation, that is, that's very concerning and it's really severe medicine.

Medical care is a teamwork and in any context, be it in Afghanistan or in Switzerland, for example, it's a teamwork between physician, nurses, lab technicians, pharmacist, community health worker and so on.

So that the segregation means really it's brutal.

It's brutal in terms of providing care to patients, to female patients and and so on.

So in terms of the number of female health professionals in the country, we, the data as of last year one 4th 1/4 of total health workforce are female and that is a wide range of disciplines from surgery to to, to, to community level providers.

So, but that is the health professionals who have already been trained, who have already graduated from the medical education and they were in the workforce.

The health workforce situation has is really serious because as a special reporter highlighted, it's about people who left the country.

It's also some, some of the health professionals left the the rural areas or the provinces and they tend to come to the cities again for, for work opportunities.

Plus some of them have to leave the job because the restrictions are so severe in terms of dress code and having a mahram throughout the work, throughout the day at the workplace.

And that's practically almost impossible for a woman to work and to continue her career.

She has to have a male guardian next to her as a surgeon, as a nurse, as a midwife, as a pharmacist, and that's to let go 1 income in the family, which which the families already undermined it through the, the, the, the whole situation and economic condition.

So the yes, it, it will deny access in the report.

There's a, there's a quote from one of the respondents from one of the provinces who said that she witnessed a woman who, because she did not have a male guardian or a mahram to come on time to the facility, she lost her baby.

So it's, that's, that's a, that's a experience quoted in the, in the report.

I would also like to mention the maternal mortality because maternal mortality everywhere.

The biggest cause of maternal mortality is haemorrhage, especially postpartum haemorrhage.

That's the first leading cause of woman in labour and haemorrhage kills woman in a span of up to two hours.

Any woman during pregnancy or labour could develop haemorrhage and if in less than two hours the woman cannot reach a facility that can treat her.

The woman's survival and the newborn or the the baby's survival is threatened.

So unfortunately we expect higher mortality, maternal mortality in the coming years, high child mortality and infant mortality in the coming years because of the fact that the health workforce are systematically, systematically restricted.

The biggest restriction on the health workforce, female health workforce.

The report says that the report documents that is two things.

One is mahram or male guardian and the second one is dress code.

Now having mahram is both on the provider and on the on the on the people who come on patients.

It's both during emergencies conditions and also during the non-emergency needs.

So it's a, it's a compounded situation, it's a compounded challenge as the report highlights.

And that is particularly difficult for women who are vulnerable already, who are living in rural areas, who are poor, who have, who speaks other languages, for example, Uzbeki or Turkmeni or Baluchi, and also people who live in places that there's no road.

And especially or people who either in urban or rural areas who are poor because the income has also been severely affected.

So it's that the report highlights the intersectionality of health situation.

It's health is is an indicator in itself, but it's it's also shows other interrelated situations, income, gender, age, socio economic condition, location and geography, infrastructure and so on.

[Other language spoken]

Sorry if I may just add a couple of comments to your very comprehensive response.

In terms of examples in the report, it also talks about how ambulance drivers would not speak to women at times.

So if they call an ambulance to go to the hospital, they don't have a Maharam, they may not be able to get that service.

And something which is much more basic that another example was a woman not being able to be get a dental treatment, emergency dental treatment.

She didn't die, but she was in a lot of pain.

[Other language spoken]

So in terms of your question about the femicide, this this term was first used in a report I wrote jointly with the Working Group on Discrimination against Women and Girls in mid 2023 after we made a joint report to Afghanistan.

And even then we could see the writing on the wall and we we expressed concern and predicted that this could lead slowly to a femicide and, and, and in the ways that that have been given examples here.

I would just like to make the one final comment is that the policies of the Taliban, which are written down in the, in the different decrees are not always implemented systematically the same across the country.

So we may find in as Surreya mentioned, in in one hospital a requirement that Maharam stays during the shift of the health worker and in another hospital where that's not the case.

I know, you know, a doctor in, in, in one of the hospitals in western Afghanistan and, and, and she, she, you know, she goes on her own and, and is able to, to, to work inside the hospital without wearing a face covering, but she has to wear it to the hospital.

So there's there's also a variability across the country and I think possibly a sense that some local officials are more lenient than others.

And just just to add, add that nuance to the response.

[Other language spoken]

Thank you, special rapper.

Are there any other questions?

No, if there are no.

Oh, sorry if Anthony, excuse me again on the conflict between Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Your reports repeatedly say that Afghanistan is violating the the international law, but do you think that Pakistan is doing the same by doing these strikes against heavily populated cities and also before with the massive transfer of refugees from Pakistan to Afghanistan?

[Other language spoken]

You know, I think on the second part of the question first, together with other mandate holders, we have issued several press statements over the years regarding Pakistan's policies under their, what they call that IFRP, their, their immigration programme to to return Afghans and other immigrants.

And we have said that that is violating international human rights law and appears to be a type of reformer on the question of the recent attacks.

My mandate is for Afghanistan, not for other countries.

I'm a country mandate holder, but I so I would say that I'm extremely concerned to about the situation and alert and warn all parties to this cross-border conflict, including both Pakistan and Afghanistan to abide by international law.

[Other language spoken]

Are there any other questions for any of the speakers?

If not, we'll close this press conference now.

Thank you very much to the Special Rapporteur and to Doctor Alil and Mr Ali for being here, and thank you all for joining us.

Thank you very much.