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STORY: OHCHR / AFGHANISTAN HUMAN RIGHTS
TRT: 02:50
SOURCE: OHCHR / UNTV CH
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / NATS
DATELINE: 09 SEPTEMBER 2024, GENEVA, SWITZERLAND / FILE
FILE - GENEVA, SWITZERLAND
1. Wide shot, Palais des Nations exterior
09 SEPTEMBER 2024, GENEVA, SWITZERLAND
2. Wide shot, Human Rights Council
3. SOUNDBITE (English) Volker Türk, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights:
“I want to make clear my abhorrence of these latest measures, which include limiting the transportation of women who seek to travel without a male so-called "guardian"; requiring women’s voices to be muted in public; forbidding even eye contact between women and men who are not related; and imposing mandatory covering for women from head to toe, including their faces.”
4. Wide shot, Human Rights Council
5. SOUNDBITE (English) Volker Türk, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights:
“This repressive control over half the population in the country is unparalleled in today’s world. It is a fundamental rupture of the social contract. It's outrageous and amounts to systematic gender persecution. And it will also jeopardise the country's future, by massively stifling its development. This is propelling Afghanistan further down a path of isolation, pain and hardship. Today, the vast majority of the population is trapped in poverty and deprived of essential rights, including the right to adequate food. The situation for children is especially devastating and deeply distressing, with 12.4 million children in desperate need.”
6. Wide shot, Human Rights Council
7. SOUNDBITE (English) Volker Türk, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights:
“A key factor underlying these and other violations is the persistent lack of accountability in Afghanistan, over decades, for human rights violations and abuses committed by multiple actors. As the report notes, generations of Afghans, under successive administrations, have been denied truth, justice, reparation and guarantees of non-recurrence for the suffering that has been inflicted on them.”
8. Wide shot, Human Rights Council
9. SOUNDBITE (English) Volker Türk, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights:
“Afghanistan has enormous development potential. It can achieve prosperity, security and justice for all. It can contribute productively to the international community. It can deliver on the hopes and rights of its people. Or it can spiral further into the abyss of state failure, with a broken economy and a society that is marred by severe violations, across the entire spectrum of human rights.”
10. Wide shot, Human Rights Council
11. SOUNDBITE (English) Volker Türk, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights:
“It is essential that Afghanistan uphold the equality of women and men – and indeed, the rights of all people.”
FILE - GENEVA, SWITZERLAND
12. Wide shot, Palais des Nations exterior
UN Human Rights Chief Volker Türk today (Sep 9) called on Afghanistan to deliver on the hopes and rights of its people and uphold the equality of women and men, warning that otherwise, the country could spiral further into the abyss of state failure and a broken economy.
“I want to make clear my abhorrence of these latest measures, which include limiting the transportation of women who seek to travel without a male so-called "guardian"; requiring women’s voices to be muted in public; forbidding even eye contact between women and men who are not related; and imposing mandatory covering for women from head to toe, including their faces,” Türk told the UN Human Rights Council (HRC), referring to last month's promulgation of new so-called "morality" laws by the de facto authority in Afghanistan.
“This repressive control over half the population in the country is unparalleled in today’s world. It is a fundamental rupture of the social contract. It's outrageous and amounts to systematic gender persecution. And it will also jeopardise the country's future, by massively stifling its development. This is propelling Afghanistan further down a path of isolation, pain and hardship. Today, the vast majority of the population is trapped in poverty and deprived of essential rights, including the right to adequate food. The situation for children is especially devastating and deeply distressing, with 12.4 million children in desperate need.
An estimated 23.7 million people in Afghanistan will be in need of humanitarian assistance this year, with poverty and the impacts of repression and violence exacerbated by natural disasters and climate change. The High Commissioner said that a devastating shortfall in funding is sharply undercutting the response by the UN and its partners.
“A key factor underlying these and other violations is the persistent lack of accountability in Afghanistan, over decades, for human rights violations and abuses committed by multiple actors,” Türk said, as he presented a new UN Human Rights Office report on the human rights situation in Afghanistan.
“As the report notes, generations of Afghans, under successive administrations, have been denied truth, justice, reparation and guarantees of non-recurrence for the suffering that has been inflicted on them,” the UN Human Rights Chief told representatives of UN Human Rights Council member states.
“Afghanistan has enormous development potential. It can achieve prosperity, security and justice for all. It can contribute productively to the international community. It can deliver on the hopes and rights of its people. Or it can spiral further into the abyss of state failure, with a broken economy and a society that is marred by severe violations, across the entire spectrum of human rights,” he noted.
“It is essential that Afghanistan uphold the equality of women and men – and indeed, the rights of all people.”
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