EU Statement – UN General Assembly 3rd Committee: Interactive Dialogue on Afghanistan

Chair, 

I have the honour to speak on behalf of the European Union and its Member States.

We thank the Special Rapporteur for his latest report, which documents the worsening human rights situation in Afghanistan, including the devastating impact of the Taliban’s policies on children and young persons, in particular girls, returnee children, and children with disabilities. Five years after the Taliban takeover, these policies not only violate human rights on a massive scale, but are also reshaping Afghanistan’s social fabric through fear, exclusion, and ideological control.

The EU strongly condemns all human rights violations and abuses, including the institutionalised and grave gender-based discrimination and oppression against women and girls. These systematic and systemic violations of women and girls’ human rights may amount to gender persecution, which is a crime against humanity under the Rome Statute of the ICC to which Afghanistan is a State party. Afghanistan remains the only country globally where women and girls are banned from education beyond the age of twelve. The exclusion of women and girls from education and public life is an affront to basic rights and freedoms.

We are further alarmed by severe poverty and malnutrition, increases in child labour and child, early and forced marriage, the worsening mental health crisis among young persons, the repression of civic space and independent media, as well as the widespread use of corporal punishment and the death penalty. We call on the Taliban to immediately impose a moratorium and abolish the death penalty, end corporal punishment, ensure women and girls’ full enjoyment of human rights, and to respect and protect the rights of persons belonging to ethnic and religious minorities, persons in vulnerable situations, and LGBTI persons. 

The EU remains firmly committed to supporting the people of Afghanistan. We continue to support UNAMA’s comprehensive mandate with its strong human rights component, and the mandate of the Special Rapporteur. We also contributed to the establishment of the Independent Investigative Mechanism for Afghanistan and call for sustained political and financial support for its rapid operationalisation. The EU remains steadfast in supporting accountability, including through the ICC, and an Afghan-led political process inclusive of all Afghans, including with the full, equal and meaningful participation of women.

At the same time, we continue our principled humanitarian engagement. Since 1994, the EU has provided around EUR 2 billion in humanitarian assistance to Afghanistan, including EUR 320 million in 2024–2025.

In this context, we ask: 

How can international actors react to the Taliban’s systematic reshaping of Afghan society, with the aim of preserving the agency and participation of Afghans, especially women and young persons?

Thank you.