On 11 September 2023, Lawyers for Lawyers, The Law Society of England and Wales and Lawyers’ Rights Watch Canada delivered an oral statement during the Interactive Dialogue on the situation of human rights in Afghanistan. The Interactive dialogue took place during the 54th session of the UN Human Rights Council.
The statement reads as follows:
Mr. President,
Lawyers’ Rights Watch Canada, Lawyers for Lawyers, and the Law Society of England and Wales thanks the Special Rapporteur for his ongoing work to raise alarm about the shocking “annihilation”[1] of rights of women and girls by Afghanistan’s de facto authorities. We remain dismayed by the exclusion of Afghan women from the judiciary, the legal profession, and NGO offices, which deprives Afghan people of services of persons qualified to provide effective access to remedies for rights violations.
We join the Special Rapporteur’s call for the restoration and protection of all rights of women and girls in Afghanistan, including:
- reversal of all edicts and policies that violate women’s and girls’ rights to freedom of expression, association, assembly, and participation in public affairs, and
- ensuring Afghan women’s rights to participate fully as members of the legal profession and judiciary.
We call on Council members and observer States:
- to provide robust support for women human rights defenders and jurists, and
- to support the Special Procedures’ call for recognition that the de facto authorities’ widespread, systematic, and profound violations against women and girls may rise to the level of the crime against humanity of gender persecution.[1]
Thank you.
