UN / AFGHANISTAN

Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator Martin Griffiths said, humanitarian agencies will continue to work in Afghanistan, “unless and until there is a blanket opposition to the role of women.” UNIFEED

• Categories: News & Features / News Stories / Unifeed
• Video Length: 00:02:16
• Production Date: 1 February 2023
• Asset Language: English
• Personal Subject: MARTIN GRIFFITHS
• Corporate Name: OFFICE FOR THE COORDINATION OF HUMANITARIAN AFFAIRS - OCHA
• Subject Topical: GENDER EQUALITY; HUMAN RIGHTS; HUMANITARIAN ASSISTANCE; INTERNATIONAL HUMANITARIAN LAW; WOMEN WORKERS
• Geographic Subject: AFGHANISTAN
• MAMS Id: 3006515
• Parent Id: 3006515
• Alternate Title: unifeed230201a

Description

STORY: UN / AFGHANISTAN
TRT: 02:16
SOURCE: UNIFEED
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGES: ENGLISH / NATS

DATELINE: 01 FEBRUARY 2023, NEW YORK CITY / FILE

Shotlist

FILE - NEW YORK CITY

1. WIDE SHOT, EXTERIOR UN HEADQUARTERS

01 FEBRUARY 2023, NEW YORK CITY

2. Wide shot, conference room
3. Wide shot, dais
4. SOUNDBITE (English) Martin Griffiths, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator:
“Humanitarian agencies will continue to work, will be present in Afghanistan, unless and until there is a blanket opposition to the role of women. Where exceptions exist, we will work. Where it's possible to find more of those exceptions, more sectors - I'll come back to that - we will push for that. The humanitarian community does not go on strike. It seeks ways to try to find ways to work.”
5. Wide shot, conference room
6. SOUNDBITE (English) Martin Griffiths, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator:
“Our first message to all those we met was to complain, to send the message that this edict was doing no favours to the people of Afghanistan for the simple reason that in Afghanistan, as elsewhere women are an essential, central component of the humanitarian operation.”
7. Wide shot, conference room
8. SOUNDBITE (English) Martin Griffiths, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator:
“It is, I believe, the largest humanitarian aid operation in the world today. And maybe, forever. And so, this edict has a direct impact on its effectiveness. So, we were making clear the consequences of this edict on operations, seeking its revocation, and then - if that's not forthcoming in the near term - finding out how we would proceed.”
9. Med shot, delegates
10. SOUNDBITE (English) Martin Griffiths, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator:
“We came back with clarity of purpose and on issues. But by no means - and we didn't imagine this anyway - is the story over. I think it's just beginning. And of course, what we'd like to see is the revocation of the edict, and of previous edicts which preclude women and girls from education, opportunities; women and girls from work, and access to parks and places of recreation. All of these things we want.”
11. Pan left, delegates

Storyline

Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator Martin Griffiths today (1 Feb) said, humanitarian agencies will continue to work in Afghanistan, “unless and until there is a blanket opposition to the role of women.”

Briefing on the recent visit of the Inter-Agency Standing Committee (IASC) to Afghanistan, the Chief UN humanitarian official said, “where exceptions exist, we will work. Where it's possible to find more of those exceptions, more sectors - I'll come back to that - we will push for that. The humanitarian community does not go on strike. It seeks ways to try to find ways to work.”

The visit came in the wake of an edict prohibiting Afghan women from working with local and international aid agencies, announced on 24 December.

On their interactions with Afghan officials, Griffiths said, “our first message to all those we met was to complain, to send the message that this edict was doing no favours to the people of Afghanistan for the simple reason that in Afghanistan, as elsewhere women are an essential, central component of the humanitarian operation.”

He said the edict “has a direct impact” on the effectiveness of the international aid operation in Afghanistan, the largest in the world, and added that the goal of the mission was “making clear the consequences of this edict on operations, seeking its revocation, and then - if that's not forthcoming in the near term - finding out how we would proceed.”

Griffiths said, “we came back with clarity of purpose and on issues. But by no means - and we didn't imagine this anyway - is the story over. I think it's just beginning. And of course, what we'd like to see is the revocation of the edict, and of previous edicts which preclude women and girls from education, opportunities; women and girls from work, and access to parks and places of recreation. All of these things we want.”

Afghanistan is facing an unprecedented humanitarian crisis with a very real risk of systemic collapse and human catastrophe. In addition to human costs, this humanitarian crisis is reversing many of the gains of the last 20 years, including around women’s rights.