Look-Ahead

• Key Event:  June 30-July 1: UN Under Secretary-General Rosemary DiCarlo will convene Special Representatives from about 20 countries for the “Doha 3” meeting, to discuss the political road map and appointment of a Special Envoy, as called for in the Independent Assessment report of November 2023.

  • The Doha 3 agenda appears to be limited to financial and banking-related problems facing Afghanistan, alternative livelihoods for poppy growers, and climate change impacts on the country.

  • In late May DiCarlo traveled to Kabul and invited the Taliban to participate. They set conditions for attendance, including the exclusion of Afghan civil society representatives and the topic of human rights. The UN spokesman stated on May 28 that human rights and women’s rights are important priorities for Doha 3.

  • In early June, Sirajuddin Haqqani met with officials in the United Arab Emirates.

  • US Special Representative Tom West and Special Representative Rina Amiri met with UAE officials in late May and EU Special Representative Niklasson met with Qatari officials on May 31.

• June (release date is unannounced): the UN Security Council Resolution 1988 Monitoring Team on sanctions against the Taliban will issue its annual report.

https://www.un.org/securitycouncil/sanctions/1988/monitoring-team/reports

• June 18-July 12: UN Human Rights Council in Geneva holds its regular session. Special Rapporteur for Afghanistan Human Rights Richard Bennett will issue his report on June 18 and will highlight gender persecution.

• June 21, UN Security Council quarterly open briefing on UNAMA, at which Special Representative of the Secretary-General and head of the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) Roza Otunbayeva and a representative of civil society are expected to brief, followed by closed consultations among Council members. As required by UNSC Resolution 2615, Martin Griffiths, UN Deputy Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, will brief the Council on the delivery of humanitarian assistance in Afghanistan.

• June 26: UN Security Council holds its Thematic Debate on children and armed conflict, with relevance to the issue of threats to children in Afghanistan.

• By the end of June, Security Council members must renew the 1267/1989/2253 Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL/Da’esh) and Al-Qaida sanctions regimes.

• Before September 2024, the UN Credentials Committee must rule on the Taliban’s application to assume Afghanistan’s UN seat.

• In October 2024, the UN General Assembly's Sixth Committee is scheduled to discuss a draft of the new Crimes Against Humanity Treaty that includes gender apartheid as a potential crime against humanity. 

Back-brief

• The UN Human Rights Commission in Geneva’s Universal Periodic Review session from April 29-May 10 featured a review of the human rights situation in Afghanistan, spotlighting the ongoing abuses, gender apartheid, and lack of representation by Afghan citizens in their own government.

• On June 3, the OSCE Asian Partners for Co-operation Group held a special meeting in Vienna to address Afghan women’s rights, as an urgent issue with significant implications for both regional and global stability.

• Starting June 5, Taliban leaders, including Sirajuddin Haqqani, received UN Security Council waivers of their travel ban (under UNSCR 1988) to perform Hajj.

Ø  Russia and the region send mixed signals:

o   The 83rd meeting of the Collective Security Treaty Organization's (CSTO) Defense Council met in Almaty at the end of May. At that meeting Russia highlighted the continuous threat posed by numerous radical groups within Afghanistan to the neighboring republics.

o   June 8-9, the Regional Contact Group [aka the Moscow Process] met in Tehran without Taliban attendance. Public statements focused on the need for an inclusive Afghan government. China, Russia, Iran, and Pakistan attended, with the intention of strengthening a regional approach to the Doha meeting June 30.

o   Numerous news stories have floated the possibility of Russian President Putin approving a delisting of the Taliban from a Russian list of ‘banned groups’ based on the reality of their hold on power; on June 4 he noted the importance of finding a way to work with the Taliban.

o   Kazakhstan removed the Taliban from their terrorist list on June 3.

o   June 5-8, Abdul Manan Omari, “Minister” of Labor and Social Affairs, attended the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum in Russia, and on June 9, Afghanistan “Minister” for Higher Education attended a global education summit in Russia.

o   In late May at the Shanghai Cooperation Organization’s foreign minister meeting, to which the Taliban was not invited, Chinese FM called for cooperation with the Taliban against terrorism.

Related Messaging

• At the UN meeting in Doha June 30-July 1, human rights must be central to the agenda and any engagement with the Taliban, and non-Taliban voices of Afghanistan must be heard #afghanhumanrights #Listen2AfghanWomen

• Gender apartheid in Afghanistan is a crime against humanity: #endgenderapartheid

• Afghanistan is not at peace or stable under the Taliban: women are subject to increased violence, citizens face unlawful killings and arrests, & terrorist groups have safe haven

• UNAMA must promote human rights and the voices of all Afghans