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STORY: UN / AFGHANISTAN
TRT: 3:21
SOURCE: UNIFEED
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGES: ENGLISH / NATS
DATELINE: 17 SEPTEMBER 2025, NEW YORK CITY / FILE
FILE - NEW YORK CITY
1. Aerial shot, exterior United Nations Headquarters
17 SEPTEMBER 2025, NEW YORK CITY
2. Wide shot, Security Council, Special Representative Roza Isakovna Otunbayeva on screen
3. SOUNDBITE (English) Roza Isakovna Otunbayeva, Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Afghanistan and Head of the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan, United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA):
“As United Nations agencies were ramping up their support for earthquake victims while continuing their assistance to the returnee crisis, personnel from the de facto Ministry of Defence deployed outside UN compounds in Kabul preventing access of our female national staff. Similarly, personnel from de facto Ministry of Interior's Directorate in charge of protecting the United Nations have blocked access for female national staff to UN field office premises around the country. This serious restriction hinders the UN’s ability to help the Afghan people at their moment of great need.”
4. Med shot, Council dais, Otunbayeva on screen
5. SOUNDBITE (English) Roza Isakovna Otunbayeva, Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Afghanistan and Head of the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan, United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA):
“IFI-funded projects must be implemented through UN agencies, and their impact has been reduced by the enforcement of bans against female national staff, and the wider ban on women working, which has created unacceptable discrimination. We have issued a statement calling for the lifting of this ban and its enforcement, and I urge the Security Council to echo our call.”
6. Med shot, Pakistan Ambassador Asim Iftikhar Ahmed addressing Council
7. SOUNDBITE (English) Asim Iftikhar Ahmed, Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Pakistan:
“Isolation and disengagement serves no one's interest. As immediate neighbours bound by geography, culture, and history, no country desires peace and stability in Afghanistan more than Pakistan. And no country has suffered from the consequences of decades of conflict in Afghanistan more than Pakistan. We therefore remain committed to supporting a peaceful, prosperous Afghanistan for the sake of our region and in the best interest of the world.”
8. Wide shot, Afghanistan representative Naseer Ahmed Faiq addressing Council
9. SOUDNBITE (English) Naseer Ahmed Faiq, Minister Counsellor, Afghanistan:
“The people of Afghanistan and international community need a government that is reliable, accountable and legitimate, grounded in the rule of law, justice, the will of the people, and respects international obligations. This can only be achieved through a genuine political process that restores inclusivity and protects the rights of all Afghans. The Afghan people demand nothing less than self-determination, representation and dignity.”
10. Wide shot, end of Council session
11. Wide shot, ambassadors at press stakeout
12. SOUDNBITE (English) Sangjin Kim, Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Republic of Korea:
“Signatories with a Shared Commitment to Women, Peace and Security of the Security Council reiterate our strong condemnation of the Taliban's ongoing and institutionalized gender-based discrimination and violence, which may amount the gender persecution, a crime against humanity under the Rome statute.”
13. Pan right, ambassadors walk away
The Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Afghanistan Roza Isakovna Otunbayeva today (17 Sep) told the Security Council that as United Nations agencies “were ramping up their support for earthquake victims,” Taliban authorities “have blocked access for female national staff to UN field office premises around the country,” and said “this serious restriction hinders the UN’s ability to help the Afghan people at their moment of great need.”
Otunbayeva welcomed support from International Financial Institutions (IFIs) such as the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank, but said, “IFI-funded projects must be implemented through UN agencies, and their impact has been reduced by the enforcement of bans against female national staff, and the wider ban on women working, which has created unacceptable discrimination.”
She said, “we have issued a statement calling for the lifting of this ban and its enforcement, and I urge the Security Council to echo our call.”
Palkistan Ambassador Asim Iftikhar Ahmed told the Council that “isolation and disengagement serves no one's interest.”
Ahmed said, “as immediate neighbours bound by geography, culture, and history, no country desires peace and stability in Afghanistan more than Pakistan. And no country has suffered from the consequences of decades of conflict in Afghanistan more than Pakistan. We therefore remain committed to supporting a peaceful, prosperous Afghanistan for the sake of our region and in the best interest of the world.”
Afghanistan representative Naseer Ahmed Faiq, for his part said, “the people of Afghanistan and international community need a government that is reliable, accountable and legitimate, grounded in the rule of law, justice, the will of the people, and respects international obligations.”
This, Faiq said, “can only be achieved through a genuine political process that restores inclusivity and protects the rights of all Afghans. The Afghan people demand nothing less than self-determination, representation and dignity.”
Faiq does not represent the de facto Taliban authorities.
Outside the Council, before the meeting, South Korea’s Ambassador Sangjin Kim, on behalf of the signatories of the Shared Commitment to Women, Peace and Security of the Security Council, reiterated its “strong condemnation of the Taliban's ongoing and institutionalized gender-based discrimination and violence,” which, he said, “may amount the gender persecution, a crime against humanity under the Rome statute.”
Over 2,200 people were killed after a magnitude-6.0 earthquake struck eastern Afghanistan on 31 August.
