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The United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) on Wednesday condemned the public flogging of more than 60 people, including more than a dozen women, by the Taliban in northern Sari Pul province.
In a statement UNAMA called for respond for international human rights standards saying “63 people were publicly lashed in Saripul yesterday by Afghanistan’s de facto authorities. UNAMA reiterates its condemnation of corporal punishment and calls for respect for international human rights obligations.”
This comes as the Taliban’s supreme court confirmed in a statement that public floggings of 63 people including 14 women had taken place for those who had been accused of crimes including sodomy, theft and immoral relations at a sports stadium in northern Sari Pul province, marking a return to the types of punishments used in their previous rule during the 1990s.
Commenting on the statement, Associate Women’s Rights Director at Human Rights Watch, Heather Barr called out UN hypocrisy over the increasingly dire situation of women and girls saying:
This dire human rights news makes it even more baffling that the UN is convening states for talks on Afghanistan in less than a month with a focus on (checks notes) economic development, counter narcotics, and climate—and bending over backwards pleading for the Taliban to attend.
This comes as UN leaders are set to meet with Taliban officials in Doha on June 30 for a two-day conference of special envoys on Afghanistan in a move widely criticised for legitimising the terrorist group’s leadership of the country admit growing concern that human rights standards, environmental protections and commitments to battle the growing wave of violence against women and girls, and minority groups, as well as capital punishment fall on deaf ears in the Taliban’s ranks’ with the Doha meeting seen as another step to legitimising and condoning the de facto’s actions, with many Afghan Women Human Rights Defenders already calling for a boycott of the conference, after Taliban leaders asked the UN prior to Doha meetings in February to be the sole voices of Afghanistan at the conference, requesting reassurances that Afghan civil society activists and members of opposition groups would not be present.
