NEW YORK CITY (TDI): Canada’s Foreign Minister, Mélanie Joly, has urged the international community to hold the Taliban accountable for their systematic oppression of women and girls in Afghanistan.
Speaking at the 79th session of the United Nations General Assembly, Joly condemned the Taliban’s increasingly restrictive policies that have barred women from public life and denied girls access to education.
“The Taliban continue to impose inhumane rules against women and girls, banning them from being in public so they are invisible, robbing young girls of the fundamental right to an education,” Joly stated.
“How is that respecting human dignity? How is that protecting the best interests of their people? They need to be held accountable.”
In her remarks, Joly announced that Canada, in collaboration with Australia, Germany, and the Netherlands, has taken steps to hold Afghanistan accountable under the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW).
This initiative, supported by 22 other countries, aims to leverage international legal mechanisms to pressure the Taliban into reversing their draconian policies.
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Since seizing power in August 2021, the Taliban have imposed sweeping restrictions on women’s rights, including barring them from most employment, denying access to higher education, and severely curtailing their freedom of movement.
These measures have drawn widespread condemnation, yet efforts to engage the group on human rights issues have yielded minimal results.
“Canada is a country that values freedom from oppression, not the freedom to thirst,” Joly remarked, emphasizing that there should be “nothing controversial” about protecting the basic rights and dignity of women.
The initiative spearheaded by Canada and its allies comes at a time when the international community is grappling with how to effectively respond to the Taliban’s rollback of women’s rights.
Human rights advocates have warned that conditions for Afghan women and girls are deteriorating rapidly, calling for stronger global action.
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While the Taliban assert that their policies align with their interpretation of Islamic law, critics argue that these restrictions have only served to isolate the regime further on the global stage.
Joly’s comments reflect the growing frustration among Western nations regarding the lack of progress in addressing the humanitarian and rights crises in Afghanistan.
“We see it around the world when groups or countries make clear that international law doesn’t apply to them,” Joly said, underscoring that the Taliban “cannot make international law disappear through simple decrees.”
This call for accountability has been welcomed by various women’s rights movements in Afghanistan, who see the initiative as a vital step toward holding the Taliban responsible for their ongoing violations of rights.
