K.M. Seethi | 04 September 2024 | The Wire

The Taliban’s recent ban on UN Special Rapporteur Richard Bennett from entering Afghanistan, coinciding with a surge in reports of severe human rights violations, indicates the regime’s deepening isolation and commitment to a hard-nosed agenda. As global condemnation swells, the Taliban’s actions reveal a widening void between their empty pledges and the harsh realities on the ground, casting a gloom over the future of a nation already gripped by fear and oppression. The regime’s human rights record, already under scrutiny, has been further criticised by various rights panels. For instance, a group of 31 human rights experts, appointed by the UN Human Rights Council last year, which included Bennett, highlighted the growing gap between the promises made by Afghanistan’s de facto authorities and their increasingly oppressive practices.

These HR experts condemned the Taliban’s policies, which led to a systematic and shocking rollback of numerous human rights, including the rights to education, work, and freedoms of expression, assembly and association. They cited credible reports of summary executions, enforced disappearances, arbitrary detention, torture, and displacement. The most vulnerable groups, including women and girls, ethnic and religious minorities, people with disabilities, displaced persons, and LGBTQ+ individuals, have been particularly hard hit…

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