Statement from Feminist Foreign Ministers at the Munich Security Conference

February 17, 2024 - Ottawa, Ontario - Global Affairs Canada

“Today, at the Munich Security Conference 2024, we, the Foreign Ministers of Albania, Andorra, Belgium, Bulgaria, Canada, France, Germany, Kosovo, Liechtenstein, Mongolia, the Netherlands, and Romania express our deepest concerns about the ongoing human rights violations of women and girls in Afghanistan, and urge the de facto authorities to put an end to systematic gender persecution, which could amount to crimes against humanity.

This includes the recent wave of detentions of women and girls in Afghanistan by the Taliban. We demand their immediate release and reaffirm our unwavering commitment to the fundamental rights of women and girls in Afghanistan.

“Since our last meeting at the Munich Security Conference in 2023, the Taliban have not made any progress on the protection of human rights in Afghanistan, particularly the fundamental rights of women and girls in all their diversity, quite the contrary:

“The Taliban are responsible for one of the most dire and appalling human rights situations worldwide. By eliminating half of the Afghan population from public life and political decision-making, they put the very future of Afghanistan into jeopardy: Bans on secondary and university education for girls and women as well as bans on women working in NGOs and UN-organizations are striking examples for systematic and systemic discrimination. Strict rules, which violate the freedom of movement of women and exclude women and girls from public spaces, arbitrary detentions of women and cases of forced marriage, are a blatant denial of basic rights of women and girls.

“We call on the de facto authorities to fully comply with international law, in particular human rights law, safeguard the fundamental rights of all Afghans, including ethnic and religious minorities, and revoke all decisions that restrict the fundamental rights of women and girls in a manner unparalleled worldwide.

“In particular, we call on the Taliban to allow Afghan girls to pursue secondary education in accordance with international standards.

“The international community must continue to focus its attention on the human rights of women and girls in Afghanistan. It must reinforce its efforts to use the legal instruments at its disposal in their support, to end violations of international law including the provisions of international conventions to which Afghanistan is a party.

“We recognize the need to address multiple challenges involving the State of Afghanistan and the wider region, e.g. the fight against terrorism and drug trafficking. We underline the international community’s joint understanding that the adherence to Afghanistan’s international obligations by the de facto authorities, especially pertaining to human rights, remains one of the central pre-requisites for the reintegration of the State of Afghanistan into the international system.”