Importance of Taliban’s debut at UN meeting

The significance of the first participation by Afghanistan’s Taliban administration in an upcoming United Nations-hosted meeting about the country’s engagement with the international community, amid the hard-line Islamists’ continuing denial of women’s rights cannot be stressed more.

The Taliban’s attendance at the third such meeting on Afghanistan in Doha on Sunday and Monday will be “a positive step” toward progress in dealing with Afghanistan’s critical issues such as human rights abuse and presence of terrorist groups.

The meeting is “not expected to lead to a breakthrough as it is part of a process” of fostering dialogue between the Taliban and other countries as well as addressing humanitarian assistance, human rights and security in Afghanistan.

The Taliban interim government has not been recognized by the international community as a legitimate government because it deprives women and minorities of human rights.

Since the Taliban returned to power in August 2021, they have banned secondary and higher education for girls and prohibited female employees of national and international organizations operating in Afghanistan from working. They have also forcibly evicted ethnic and religious minorities from their homes in different parts of the country.

The United Nations held the first meeting focused on Afghanistan in May 2023, under the initiative of Secretary General Antonio Guterres. The world body invited Taliban rulers to the second meeting in February this year but they refused to attend over the participation by Afghan citizens’ organizations and women’s groups.

It has been confirmed that representatives from Afghanistan’s civil society would not be part of the plenary session of the upcoming meeting.

The agenda for the third meeting is limited to discussions on Afghanistan’s private-sector development and counter-narcotics measures. The country has long been a major player in international narcotics trafficking and is also facing a rising addiction problem.

Pakistani delegation which is likely to be there will raise issues including ongoing threats from terrorist groups based in Afghanistan that have carried out suicide bomb attacks in Pakistan and the repatriation of Afghan refugees.

The Taliban is expected to send a delegation led by Zabihullah Mujahid, a spokesman of the administration, to the meeting, according to the Taliban’s Foreign Ministry.

However the only country which can solve the Afghan problem is India.Therefore Russia has been consulting India ahead of the above meet in Doha.