[ad_1]
The US State Department said the US special representative for Afghanistan was prepared to attend the meeting after being convinced of the agenda of the third Doha summit on meaningful engagement with Afghan women and civil society.
U.S. Special Representative for Afghanistan Tom West and U.S. Special Representative for Women, Girls and Human Rights in Afghanistan Reina Amiri will attend the third Doha summit, Foreign Ministry spokesman Matthew Miller said at a press conference on Wednesday evening. He added that the United States is attending the meeting to continue to emphasize to the international community that the Taliban must seriously implement their commitments in the Doha agreement, including their treatment of women and girls, which he said “remains horrific.”
“But we must point out that they committed to the conference only after the underlying agenda was made clear and, more importantly, they received confirmation that they could attend,” said Miller, who is also a member of the Afghan women and Afghan civil society.
Lina Amiri has previously said that without women in the discussion, there will be no solution to overcome this challenge.
Human Rights Watch: Human rights not on the agenda of this meeting
Meanwhile, Human Rights Watch has once again criticized the exclusion of Afghan women from the Doha Summit III. The organization recently wrote on its Twitter page that it excluded the agenda of the Human Rights Summit and that Afghan women were excluded from the main sessions of the Doha Summit III.
The third Doha Summit on Afghanistan will open in three days, hosted by the United Nations and attended by the Taliban, some organizations and representatives of 30 countries.
Meanwhile, Rudabeh Forotan, head of the women’s affairs department of the European Afghanistan Peace Committee and a human rights activist, told RFE/RL about the participation of US representatives in Afghanistan in the meeting, “If it is Afghanistan, we welcome it. But we will wait until the end of the meeting to see what they do, what they say and what will be achieved.”
Taliban: We are ready to discuss banking and drug sanctions
Taliban Foreign Minister Amir Khan Mottaki met with Rosa Otunbayiwa, the chief of staff of the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA), on Wednesday to discuss the agenda of the third Doha conference and the composition of the Taliban delegation, the Taliban Foreign Ministry said. The Taliban is fully prepared to discuss drugs as well as financial and banking sanctions.
Earlier, the Taliban Foreign Ministry announced that Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid would lead a delegation to attend the Doha Summit 3. The head of the UNAMA office said last week that Afghan women and civil society representatives would not attend the main talks of the Doha Summit 3.
The announcement sparked a strong reaction from women’s rights activists after the United Nations was widely criticized in recent weeks by other international organizations, particularly Human Rights Watch, for the “absence of women and women’s rights activists.”
But recently, UN Secretary-General’s spokesman Stephane Dujarric said at a press conference that UN political representative Rosemary DiCarlo will hold a separate meeting with Afghan women activists and representatives on July 2.
[ad_2]
Source link
