UN Agencies' Joint Report Finds Taliban Policies Violate CEDAW

Two United Nations agencies, the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) and UN Women, have released a joint report reviewing 16 policies and decrees issued by the Taliban since 2021.

The report concludes that these measures contradict Afghanistan's obligations under the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), to which the country acceded in 2003. Afghanistan's commitments under the treaty remain binding.

Among the policies examined are bans on girls' education beyond the sixth grade, prohibitions on women's higher education, and a 2024 restriction barring women from medical institutes. The report also cites bans on women working in government offices, non-governmental organizations and United Nations agencies, as well as travel restrictions preventing women from traveling more than 78 kilometers without a male companion.

Additional measures include a nationwide hijab mandate and the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice law. The report describes these as establishing a system of institutionalized discrimination that violates women's rights to education, work, movement and expression.

It further notes that the policies create structural discrimination, limit women's economic independence and disrupt essential services that rely on female workers.