KABUL (Dispatches) – The interim government of Afghanistan has protested a UN Committee’s decision not to allow its envoy to resume the Afghan seat at the UN, Anadolu News Agency reports.
A nine-member Credentials Committee of the General Assembly on Wednesday decided to defer its decision on the applications by the Taliban-led interim government in Afghanistan and military junta of Myanmar to replace their countries’ envoys.
“This decision is not based on legal rules and justice because they have deprived the people of Afghanistan of their legitimate rights,” said Suhail Shaheen, the Afghan interim government’s nominee to the UN.
Sweden’s UN Ambassador, Anna Enestrom, told reporters after the closed meeting of the Credentials Committee, which she chaired, that the Committee has decided to defer its decision on the credentials in these two situations.
The Committee is responsible for approving the diplomatic representation of each UN member state.
The decision to defer the approval of the new envoys means for most of the next year, Afghanistan and Myanmar will not be represented at the UN until the next session of the General Assembly is convened.
“We hope that this right is handed over to the representative of the government of Afghanistan in the near future, so that we can be in a position to resolve issues of the people of Afghanistan effectively and efficiently and maintain positive interaction with the world,” Shaheen said on Twitter.
The development comes as the Taliban issued a decree Friday in the name of their leader instructing Afghan ministries “to take serious action” on women’s rights, but failed to mention girls’ access to schools.
The move comes after the movement seized power in mid-August and as they seek to restore Afghanistan’s access to billions of dollars in assets and aid suspended when the previous, Western-backed government collapsed in the final stages of a U.S. military withdrawal.
The Taliban “directs all relevant organizations... to take serious action to enforce women’s rights,” the decree states, quoting elusive leader Hibatullah Akhundzada.
The decree centers on marriage and widows’ rights, stating “no one can force women to marry by coercion or pressure” and that a widow is entitled to an unspecified fixed share of her husband’s inheritance.
It instructs the Ministry of Culture and Information to publish material on women’s rights “to prevent... ongoing repression”.
Respect for women’s rights has repeatedly been cited by key global donors as a condition for restoring aid.