Plight of Afghans going ‘from bad to worse’, but the world is looking… — UN News

Since the Taliban returned to power in 2021, the plight of Afghans has only deteriorated, with millions impoverished while authorities violate basic human rights daily. “Today, the plight of many in Afghanistan is going from bad to worse,” stressed the UN Human Rights Chief Volker Türk. “Yet, it seems the world has forgotten and abandoned the people of Afghanistan to a plight deepening by the day,” he told journalists in Geneva. “The silence is deafening.” Mr. Türk deplored the ongoing restrictions cutting severely into education, employment, freedom of movement, and access to public life. Notably, both women and men are being arrested by the Taliban’s Office for the Propagation of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, primarily for alleged violations of strict dress codes, beard length, and the playing of, or listening to, music. Human rights violations against former adversaries of the Taliban during the long war that followed the allied invasion of 2001 in response to the 9/11 attacks on the US and restrictions against religious minorities – including Shi’a and Ismaili communities – continue to be documented. Censorship of the media, temporary closures of media outlets and arrests of journalists also continue. At least 449 men and women were subjected to corporal punishment by the de facto authorities in the first half of the year, according to the UN….