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STORY: UN / AFGHANISTAN
TRT: 04:53
SOURCE: UNIFEED
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGES: ENGLISH / NATS
DATELINE: 23 JUNE 2025, NEW YORK CITY / FILE
FILE – NEW YORK CITY
1. Wide shot, UN headquarters
23 JUNE 2025, NEW YORK CITY
2. Wide shot, Security Council
3. SOUNDBITE (English) Roza Otunbayeva, Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Afghanistan and Head of the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan:
“Based on our extensive outreach and many interactions with Afghans across the country, it is their view that both Afghans and the country would be in a far worse place without the presence and assistance of the international community. At the very least, the international presence provides an element of protection and prevention.”
4. Wide shot, Security Council
5. SOUNDBITE (English) Roza Otunbayeva, Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Afghanistan and Head of the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan:
“This May, dozens of our female national staff were subjected to explicit death threats from unidentified individuals in relation to their work with UNAMA and other United Nations agencies, funds and programmes, requiring us to implement interim measures to protect their safety. In our subsequent engagements with the de facto authorities, they said they were not responsible, but it was also clear these armed individuals were operating with impunity in a coordinated manner in the capital. This is a strong rebuke to the de facto authorities’ claim that they have established security and secured the safety and dignity of Afghan women.”
6. Wide shot, Security Council
7. SOUNDBITE (English) Joyce Msuya, Assistant Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Deputy Emergency Relief Coordinator:
“One in every five Afghans is hungry. 3.5 million children are acutely malnourished. An estimated 3.7 million children are out of school, including 2.2 million girls over the age of 11 banned from education due to restrictions imposed by the de facto authorities. The maternal mortality rate is over 2.5 times the global average.”
8. Wide shot, Security Council
9. SOUNDBITE (English) Joyce Msuya, Assistant Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Deputy Emergency Relief Coordinator:
“We are halfway through the year, and the humanitarian response plan is under 21 per cent funded, with a gap of US $1.9 billion. Due to cuts, we have hyper-prioritized the response to focus on the most critical needs of 12.5 million people in the most severely affected districts, down from an initial target of 16.8 million people.”
10. Wide shot, Security Council
11. SOUNDBITE (English) Sima Sami Bahous, Executive Director of UN Women:
“The latest data from UN Women’s Afghanistan Gender Index, launched last week, confirms a grim trajectory: nearly 78 percent of Afghan women aged 18 to 29 are neither working, nor studying, nor training; making Afghanistan home to one of the widest and fastest growing gender gaps in the world. Men are nearly three times more likely than women to own a bank account or use mobile money services. Rates of intimate partner violence are rising. And education bans alone are estimated to cost Afghanistan US$1.5 billion by 2030.”
12. Wide shot, Security Council
13. SOUNDBITE (English) Naseer Ahmad Faiq, Chargé d'affaires, Permanent Mission to the United Nations, Afghanistan:
“Nearly four years since the Taliban's return to power under a non-inclusive, repressive and non-legitimate regime, the people of Afghanistan, amid despair and uncertainty, continue to endure one of the world's most severe human rights and humanitarian crises. The absence of formal conflict should not obscure the gravity of the suffering on the ground. The population lives under deepening repression, widespread poverty and the systematic dismantling of rights, especially for women and girls.”
14. Wide shot, Security Council
15. SOUNDBITE (English) Naseer Ahmad Faiq, Chargé d'affaires, Permanent Mission to the United Nations, Afghanistan:
“We welcome the renewed efforts under the United Nations in support of a comprehensive approach based on the recommendation of the Independent Assessment mandated by this Council. In this context, we take note of the mosaic approach draft concept. However, serious concerns remain. The draft mosaic approach, as it stands, lacks genuine Afghan ownership. Afghan democratic forces, political actors, civil society, women's organizations and youth representatives have not been meaningfully consulted in its development.”
16. Wide shot, Security Council
The UN’s Special Representative for Afghanistan, Roza Otunbayeva, told the Security Council that Afghans believe the country “would be in a far worse place” without international assistance. “At the very least, the international presence provides an element of protection and prevention,” Otunbayeva said.
Briefing the Security Council today (23 Jun) Otunbayeva also said the delivery of UNAMA’s mandate is also complex and sometimes dangerous. She said, “This May, dozens of our female national staff were subjected to explicit death threats from unidentified individuals in relation to their work with UNAMA and other United Nations agencies, funds and programmes, requiring us to implement interim measures to protect their safety. In our subsequent engagements with the de facto authorities, they said they were not responsible, but it was also clear these armed individuals were operating with impunity in a coordinated manner in the capital. This is a strong rebuke to the de facto authorities’ claim that they have established security and secured the safety and dignity of Afghan women.”
Joyce Msuya, Assistant Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, said, “One in every five Afghans is hungry. 3.5 million children are acutely malnourished. An estimated 3.7 million children are out of school, including 2.2 million girls over the age of 11 banned from education due to restrictions imposed by the de facto authorities.”
Msuya added that maternal mortality in Afghanistan remains alarmingly high. “The maternal mortality rate is over 2.5 times the global average,” she told Council members.
Despite the deepening needs, humanitarian funding continues to fall short. “We are halfway through the year, and the humanitarian response plan is under 21 per cent funded, with a gap of US $1.9 billion,” Msuya warned. “Due to cuts, we have hyper-prioritized the response to focus on the most critical needs of 12.5 million people in the most severely affected districts, down from an initial target of 16.8 million people.”
The head of UN Women, Sima Sami Bahous, underscored the devastating consequences of restrictions on Afghan women. “The latest data from UN Women’s Afghanistan Gender Index, launched last week, confirms a grim trajectory: nearly 78 percent of Afghan women aged 18 to 29 are neither working, nor studying, nor training; making Afghanistan home to one of the widest and fastest growing gender gaps in the world,” Bahous said.
She also pointed to growing economic exclusion and rising gender-based violence. “Men are nearly three times more likely than women to own a bank account or use mobile money services. Rates of intimate partner violence are rising. And education bans alone are estimated to cost Afghanistan US $1.5 billion by 2030,” she added.
On behalf of Afghanistan’s UN Mission, Chargé d'affaires Naseer Ahmad Faiq condemned the continued repression in the country. “Nearly four years since the Taliban's return to power under a non-inclusive, repressive and non-legitimate regime, the people of Afghanistan, amid despair and uncertainty, continue to endure one of the world's most severe human rights and humanitarian crises,” Faiq said.
“The absence of formal conflict should not obscure the gravity of the suffering on the ground. The population lives under deepening repression, widespread poverty and the systematic dismantling of rights, especially for women and girls,” he added.
Faiq welcomed renewed efforts by the United Nations to support a political solution but raised concerns over the latest proposal. “We welcome the renewed efforts under the United Nations in support of a comprehensive approach based on the recommendation of the Independent Assessment mandated by this Council. In this context, we take note of the mosaic approach draft concept. However, serious concerns remain,” he said.
“The draft mosaic approach, as it stands, lacks genuine Afghan ownership. Afghan democratic forces, political actors, civil society, women's organizations and youth representatives have not been meaningfully consulted in its development,” Faiq told the Council.
