Washington DC, 29 July 2022 (TDI): The US Secretary of State, Antony J. Blinken launched the US-Afghan Consultative Mechanism with US Special Envoy, Rina Amiri at the US Institute of Peace.
Today I launched the U.S.-Afghan Consultative Mechanism with @SE_AfghanWGH. The Mechanism will enable U.S. officials to engage more effectively with Afghan women and civil society to support our shared goal of an Afghanistan whose future is determined by all its people.
— Secretary Antony Blinken (@SecBlinken) July 28, 2022
The President and CEO of the US Institute of Peace, Lisa Grande, hosted the launch event.
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Afghan Women and girls under the Taliban Regime
While addressing the audience at the launch of the US-Afghan Consultative Mechanism, Secretary Blinken shed some light on the life of Afghan women and girls under the Taliban Regime.
He said, ‘Since the Taliban took over a year ago, they’ve reversed a great deal of the openness and progress that had been made over the previous decades. They’ve silenced civil society and journalists.
In March, they banned independent international media like Voice of America and BBC from airing in Afghanistan. They continue to intimidate and censor Afghan media outlets. They stifled the free practice of religion for Muslims and non-Muslims alike.
Perhaps most notably, they failed to respect the human rights of women and girls. Instead, under the Taliban, women and girls have largely been erased from public life.’
He also quoted a report by Amnesty International during his speech. According to it, the Taliban have systematically restricted women’s and girls’ rights to free movement.
They have decimated the system supporting domestic violence victims, and contributed to surging rates of child, early, and forced marriage.
US-Afghanistan Consultative Mechanism (USACM)
The Mechanism will enable US officials to engage more effectively with Afghan women and civil society.
The mechanism will bring together diverse representatives from various women’s coalitions as well as civil society leaders, journalists, academics, legal experts, and religious actors and scholars from inside and outside Afghanistan.
USACM partner organizations include the Atlantic Council, and the Georgetown Institute for Women, Peace, and Security. The U.S. Institute of Peace and the Sisterhood Is Global Institute has also partnered with the mechanism.
This mechanism will feed the shared goal of an Afghanistan whose future is determined by all its people.
