“Our colleagues on the ground at the UN mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) received word of an order by the de facto authorities that bans female national staff members of the UN from working,” Stéphane Dujarric, spokesperson for the UN Secretary-General, told reporters at UN Headquarters during the regular daily briefing.

“We are still looking into how this development would affect our operations in the country,” he said. “We expect to have more meetings with the de facto authorities tomorrow in Kabul, on which we are trying to seek some clarity.”

Following Afghanistan’s fall to the Taliban in August 2021, the UN remained committed to stay and deliver, while calling for unified support for the country’s people.

Despite relatively constructive initial engagements with Taliban authorities, decisions over the last year by the fundamentalist leadership have included bans on women accessing higher education, working for NGOs, and accessing many public spaces.

Ban ‘unacceptable’: Guterres

Answering questions from reporters, Mr. Dujarric said an official communication coming from the Taliban leadership, had indicated that the order would apply to the whole country.

“We hope we will hear strong voices from the Security Council,” he said, noting that the UN mission operates under its mandate.

For the Secretary-General, any such ban would be unacceptable and “frankly inconceivable”, Mr. Dujarric said.

Female staff ‘essential’

The reported decision focussed on UN staff, is just the latest in a disturbing trend of edicts, undermining the ability of aid organizations to reach those most in need, he added.

“It goes without saying, but unfortunately, it does need saying, that female staff are essential for the United Nations to deliver life-saving assistance,” he said.

“Such orders, as we saw today, violate the fundamental rights of women and infringe upon the principle of non-discrimination,” he said. “Female staff members are essential to ensure the continuation of the UN operations on the ground in Afghanistan.”

‘Pursing all avenues’

Out of a population of about 40 million people in Afghanistan, the UN is trying to reach 23 million men, women, and children with humanitarian aid, he said.

“We will continue to pursue all avenues to ensure that we can reach the most vulnerable people, especially women and girls”.

‘Most repressive’ place to be a woman

In March, Roza Isakovna Otunbayeva, UN Special Representative and head of the UNAMA Assistance Mission, told the Security Council that Afghanistan under the Taliban remains the “most repressive country in the world [for] women’s rights”.

“At a moment when [the country] needs all of its human capital to recover from decades of war, half of its potential doctors, scientists, journalists, and politicians are shut away in their homes, their dreams crushed, and their talents confiscated,” she said in a briefing to the Council.

“Tunisia must immediately stop hate speech and violence against migrants from south of the Sahara,” the independent UN-appointed experts said in a statement issued under the Committee’s early warning and urgent action procedure.

The mechanism aims at considering situations that may escalate into conflicts with a view to taking preventive actions to avoid full-scale violations of human rights under the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination.

End racist violence

As such, the Committee called upon Tunisia to combat all forms of racial discrimination and racist violence against Black Africans, especially those who are sub-Saharan migrants or Tunisian citizens.

Urging Tunisia’s highest authorities to publicly condemn and distance themselves from racist hate speech by politicians and public and private figures, they also asked them to refrain from making remarks contributing to racial hatred and racial discrimination against migrants from sub-Saharan African countries and to proactively condemn anyone who did so.

In terms of reported rights violations, the Committee requested that Tunisia immediately halt the arrests and collective detention of migrants, release those who are arbitrarily detained, especially women and children, and allow those who choose to apply for asylum to do so.

The experts asked Tunisia to investigate cases of migrants being arbitrarily removed from their jobs or homes and to take other measures to prevent and combat all forms of racial discrimination.

Racist rhetoric

The experts said they were alarmed by remarks made by Tunisia’s Head of State in late February, alleging that “hordes of illegal migrants” arriving from African countries south of the Sahara were part of “a criminal plan to change the composition of the demographic landscape of Tunisia” and were the source “of violence, unacceptable crimes, and practices”.

Such remarks violate the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, they said.

Forced evictions

Following the violence-triggering racist remarks, hundreds of migrants from countries including Côte d’Ivoire, Mali, and Senegal, decided to return to their home countries, the experts said.

They said many other sub-Saharan migrants and refugees were forcibly evicted from their homes or lost jobs,  and were subsequently forced to seek protection and help from the International Organization for Migration (IOM) and the UN refugee agency (UNHCR).

Arbitrary actions

The experts’ statement included a snapshot of other recent human rights violations. They pointed out that the number of arbitrary detentions of sub-Saharan migrants significantly increased since the beginning of February, while some men, women, and children have been detained for more than 18 months.

The Committee voiced alarm over reports that a “campaign” called “Strengthening the security fabric and reducing the phenomenon of illegal stay in Tunisia”, is leading law enforcement officials to make arbitrary arrests of migrants, including women, children, and students, without procedural guarantees.

Online hate speech

The experts voiced deep concern over reports of an increase of racial or xenophobic hate speech on social networks and some other media, including by private personalities and political party members, especially following remarks made by the Tunisian president.

This wave of hate speech and stigmatization has led to acts of violence against these migrants, including physical attacks and evictions.

About the Committee

The Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination monitors States parties’ adherence to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, which, to date, has 182 States parties.

The Committee is made up of 18 members who are independent human rights experts drawn from around the world, serving in their personal capacity. They are not UN staff and are not paid for their work.

The appeal comes in the latest report by the UN Committee on Enforced Disappearances, which visited the country in November. 

The report examines five “waves of disappearance” in Iraq, including enforced disappearance. It covers the period starting with the Ba’ath era from 1968-2003 – characterized by the authoritarian rule of Saddam Hussein – through to the anti-Government protests from 2018 to 2020. 

More work ahead 

The UN Committee is comprised of 10 international rights experts who monitor global implementation of the Convention against enforced disappearances.   

While acknowledging the serious challenges the authorities face in addressing the situation in Iraq, the experts were deeply concerned that enforced disappearance has been widespread over different periods, and that impunity and revictimization prevail. 

“The visit constitutes a new step in the Committee’s interaction with Iraq, one of the first countries to ratify the Convention,” they said, adding, “but lots remain to be done.” 

Ongoing patterns of disappearance 

The Committee met with senior officials, victims, and civil society representatives in Iraq.   

Members heard numerous testimonies from victims, including a mother whose son disappeared after being stopped at a checkpoint while going to visit a cousin.  Her story was indicative of an ongoing pattern in Iraq, according to the Committee. 

Children ‘given’ away   

Another common pattern concerns the alleged enforced disappearance of children, particularly from the Yazidi minority community, born after their mothers were sexually abused in camps operated by the extremist group ISIL or Da’esh. 

The Committee learned that, in some cases, mothers were compelled to leave their children in orphanages after returning to Iraq, intending to take them home as soon as possible.  

However, when they went to reclaim them, the mothers were told that their children had been “given” to another family, allegedly with direct involvement of some State agents. 

A ‘massive’ problem 

Hundreds of families are also still searching for relatives they suspect are in camps in Türkiye, Syria, or Iran, “where contact with the outside world is impossible”, the Committee said. 

The report noted that following decades of conflict and political violence, disappearances – including enforced disappearances – have been identified as “a problem of massive proportions in Iraq.”   

Official estimates indicate that since 1968, between 250,000 and 1,000,000 people have been disappeared, though it is impossible to provide more precise figures. 

Five ‘waves’ 

During the Ba’ath era in the Federal Iraq and Kurdistan region, up to 290,000 people, including some 100,000 Kurds, were forcibly disappeared as part of Saddam Hussein’s genocidal campaign in Iraqi Kurdistan, the report said. 

The second “wave” of disappearances covers the 2003 invasion and subsequent occupation, to the pre-ISIL period.  During this time, the United States military and allies captured at least 200,000 Iraqis.  Of this number, 96,000 were held at some point in prisons administered by the US or the United Kingdom.  

“It is alleged that detainees were arrested without a warrant for their involvement in insurgency operations, while others were ‘civilians in the wrong place at the wrong time’”, the Committee said. 

Giles Clarke/ Getty Images Reportage

A Yazidi Kurd from Sinjar who was abducted by the ISIL terrorist group, pictured in Mamilyan Camp for internally displaced persons in Akre, Iraq.

ISIL atrocities 

The report documented how ISIL’s proclamation of an Islamic caliphate, including a large swathe of Iraq, saw new rounds of abductions and mass killings of Iraqi soldiers or security forces from 2014 to 2017. 

The situation deteriorated further when Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) conducted military operations to retake major cities from the extremists, during which pro-Government forces disappeared thousands of Sunni Arabs, mainly men and boys.  

More enforced disappearances occurred during the wave of demonstrations in Iraq from 2018 to 2020, when thousands took to the street to protest against corruption.  

Legislation and investigation 

The UN Committee urged the Iraqi Government to immediately include enforced disappearances as a separate offence in national legislation as currently it cannot be prosecuted. 

Members also called for establishing a comprehensive search and investigation strategy for all cases of disappearances, and they encouraged the authorities to strengthen and enlarge the scope of national forensic investigations.  

“Iraq must also immediately establish an independent task force to cross-check systematically the registers of all places of deprivation of liberty with the names of all detainees,” the Committee said.  “The task force must ensure that all detainees are registered and that their relatives are duly informed of their whereabouts.” 

Address secret detention allegations 

Iraq should also clarify persistent allegations of secret detention, which the State has denied. In this regard, the authorities should establish an independent commission that would carry out a fact-finding mission to verify whether secret places of detention exist.  

The Iraqi authorities were also urged to take legislative and judicial measures to address the needs and rights of victims. 

About the UN Committee 

The Committee on Enforced Disappearances was appointed by the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva. The independent experts are not UN staff, and do not receive a salary for their work. 

While in Iraq, the delegation also observed developments surrounding two exhumations and visited a provisional centre of DNA identification in the northern city of Sinjar, home to the Yazidi community, among other activities. 

“Libyan authorities, armed groups, smugglers, and human traffickers should not assume that the eyes of the international community have now left Libya,” UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk said.

“It is crucial that we redouble efforts to secure accountability for past violations and continue to monitor the reality on the ground to prevent future violations,” he said, echoing calls for action made by the recently concluded Independent Fact-Finding Mission (FFM) on Libya.

Oil-rich Libya has been in turmoil since the ouster of former decades-long leader Muammar Gaddafi, which has seen rival administrations and warring militias compete to fill a power vacuum. The UN-recognized Government of National Accord is based in the capital Tripoli and the forces of General Khalifa Haftar’s so-called Libyan National Army control much of the east and southern areas.

Call for new mechanism

In its final report, the FFM recommended that the UN Human Rights Office establish a distinct and autonomous mechanism with an ongoing mandate to monitor and report on gross human rights violations in Libya, with a view to supporting Libyan reconciliation efforts, and assisting the Libyan authorities in achieving transitional justice and accountability.

Addressing the Council on Monday, FFM chair Mohamed Auajjar shared grim details, findings, and recommendations contained in its report.

“The situation in Libya is still very dire,” he said. “Violations continue unabated, and fundamental freedoms and the human rights situation have deteriorated.”

Widespread violence

After conducting more than 400 interviews, collecting more than 2,800 items of information, and undertaking 13 missions, including to Tripoli and Banghazi, as well as to countries including Italy, Rwanda, Malta, and the Netherlands, the Mission has found reasonable grounds to believe that crimes against humanity were committed against Libyans and migrants throughout Libya in the context of deprivation of liberty since 2016.

Findings confirmed the widespread practice of arbitrary detention, murder, torture, rape, enslavement, sexual slavery, and enforced disappearance, he said.

‘Crimes continue’

“The rapid, deep, and ongoing absorption of armed groups and their leadership into State-affiliated structures and institutions are of significant concern,” Mr. Auajjar cautioned.

“We regret that these crimes continue to be committed until today,” he added.

High Commissioner Türk stressed that his Office will strengthen its work on Libya, where the human rights situation continues to deteriorate amid widespread violence by armed actors, ongoing political deadlock, and deepening curbs on civic space.

Crackdown on civil society

He raised deep concern over the intensifying crackdown on civil society, most recently through a Government decree declaring all national and international civil society organizations registered after 2011, illegal.

“Regulations concerning civil society should respect the fundamental rights of freedom of assembly and association, not suffocate and criminalize the work of those working for a rights-based future for Libya,” he said.

He also underlined the importance of holding national elections and working towards sustainable peace.

The report by the UN Commission on Human Rights in South Sudan details how perpetrators of the most serious crimes – including widespread attacks against civilians and extrajudicial killings – go unpunished, with senior Government officials and military implicated in serious violations. 

“Over several years, our findings have consistently shown that impunity for serious crimes is a central driver of violence and misery faced by civilians in South Sudan,” said Yasmin Sooka, Chair of the independent expert group.  

 “So, we have taken the step of naming more of the individuals who warrant criminal investigation and prosecution for their role in gross human rights violations,” she added.  

No accountability at all 

South Sudan, the world’s youngest country, has been mired in unrest for nearly a decade, although a 2018 Peace Agreement sought to end the violence. 

The UN Commission has been monitoring the human rights situation there since March 2016. Its latest report is based on investigations in six states, and in the neighbouring region, over the past 12 months. 

Members had presented the main findings to the Council last month, but the full report provides greater detail on “emblematic situations and sites of human rights violations” during this period, such as widespread attacks against civilians, including killings, rape, sexual slavery and other forms of sexual violence, as well as mass displacement.  

The Commission found that although the Government of South Sudan has announced special investigation committees into several situations, not one has led to any form of accountability. Furthermore, Government and military personnel implicated in these serious crimes remain in office.  

Failure to protect civilians 

“Once again, hundreds of South Sudanese shared with our Commission their experiences of being subjected to a range of human rights violations. Their suffering is immense. The State continues to fail in its duty to protect civilians, and to ensure accountability for violations,” Commissioner Andrew Clapham said.  

“We call upon the authorities to properly investigate alleged perpetrators of serious crimes, no matter their rank or office, and to establish and strengthen the justice mechanisms for holding them accountable.”  

Senior officials implicated 

The report identifies Unity State Governor Joseph Monytuil, and Lieutenant General Thoi Chany Reat of the South Sudan People’s Defence Forces, as among the individuals warranting criminal investigation in relation to State-sanctioned extrajudicial killings carried out in Mayom in August 2022.  

The Commissioner in Koch County, Gordon Koang, is among persons identified as being responsible for leading widespread attacks against civilians in Leer in February and April 2022.  

The Commission’s findings also identify other individuals warranting further scrutiny or investigation in relation to human rights violations in Warrap State, Upper Nile State, northern parts of Jonglei State, and the Equatoria states.  

Recommit to peace deal 

Commissioner Barney Afako said “breaking the grip of impunity” can only be realized if the authorities recommit and adhere to the values and promises in the peace agreement. 

“Political leaders are accountable to the people of South Sudan, and must therefore ensure that civic space for discussion is protected if the country’s first electoral and constitution-making processes are to be credible and positively impactful,” he said.  

The report also assesses justice systems and initiatives in South Sudan, including the recent use of military courts and ad hoc inquiries. 

It also addresses thematic human rights issues, including the use of children in the armed forces and in armed groups, conflict-related sexual violence, and the virtual disappearance of civic space in the country.  

Independent experts 

The Commission is an independent body and receives its mandate from the UN Human Rights Council, which is based in Geneva. 

The three Commissioners serve independently and are not UN staff, neither are they paid for their work. 

“There is no such thing as disability in the world of art,” said Soomi Jeon, Director of the Vichae Art Museum.

“We often think the persons with disabilities are the receivers of charity, and we are the givers,” she explained. “This belief actually divides us. It is not sharing. I planned this exhibition to break that common misconception.”

Breaking misconceptions

One of the featured artists is Hansol Kwon, who uses bold lines and dots in vivid colours to express himself.

His mother, Kyunghee Kim, recalled that Hansol, who lives with autism, started painting with colours, then he would cover them over in black.

“The black disappeared, and pretty colours reappeared,” she said. “I witnessed how he blossomed in his paintings. When I look at my son’s paintings since his younger years, I am able to see his growth and psychological development.”

The prestigious venue, one of the Republic of Korea’s leading arts institutions, first exhibited the works of artists with developmental disabilities in 2020. Hansol was among the 43 artists who collectively contributed more than 100 different paintings in 2022.

Beyond the art world

The significance reverberates far beyond the art world. The World Health Organization (WHO) has estimated that 15 per cent of the global population, or about one billion people, have a disability.

Reena Lee, the former Secretary-General of the Korean Disability Forum, noted that despite the strong representation, such persons are often hidden. This means one in seven people around me must have a disability, she said.

“In my school classroom, in my neighbourhood and in the workplace, is there one person with disabilities out of seven people I know? No, there isn’t,” she said. “Just for the comfort of the majority and economic benefit, society decided to separate persons with disabilities from those without them.”

Autistic artists are featured in periodic exhibits at the Seoul Art Centre in the Republic of Korea.

Promoting dignity

The exhibition offers an invaluable opportunity to raise visibility and promote dignity in tangible ways, Ms. Jeon said.

“People think that the exhibitions of the artists with disabilities are just free events, but these proud artists gave their imagination to us with so much sweat and passion, so in fact, it is only right to pay to see their work and establish it as a commercial exhibition,” she said. “That way, they can become financially independent someday.”

In her view, persons with disabilities should never be viewed as an economic drain.

“Breaking those misunderstandings is one of the important goals of this exhibition,” she added.

Artworks in their own right

Visitors to the exhibition shared that observation. Yunhee Park said she had visited to admire the artworks in their own right.

“If our society is open and ready to accept them, then we would be able to provide many opportunities for persons without disabilities to contribute with their amazing talents,” she said. “It will also be beneficial to persons without disabilities, and I hope more opportunities like this one can be made available.”

Visitors take in an art show in Seoul, Republic of Korea.

Equality promotes stability

Equality promotes stability, said Yejin Ha, who works as a programme officer at UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP).

“Throughout history, social exclusion and social injustices and inequality – they all lead to conflict and social discord,” she said. “In order to prevent conflict, it is absolutely critical to make sure that everybody is included in these efforts to build an harmonious and just society.”

‘Receive their uniqueness’

Humanity is more than transactional; it can generate mutually beneficially synergies among those with disabilities and others in society, said Myunghee Kim, who is the mother of featured artist Hyeshin Park.

“All we have to do is foster a natural exchange,” she said. “We could share the health we have and receive the uniqueness they have. It will make such a wonderful world.”

“Today and every day, let us fully recognize the active and diverse contributions of persons with autism to our societies,” UN Secretary-General António Guterres said. “Let us work together with persons with autism to build an inclusive and accessible world for all.”

‘We must do better’

Despite important progress, he said, persons with autism continue to face social and environmental barriers to the full exercise of their rights and fundamental freedoms, in line with the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

“We must do better, by promoting inclusive education, equal employment opportunities, self-determination, and an environment where every person is respected,” he said.

“As we do so, we also recognize the role of families, caregivers, and support networks in the lives of persons with autism.”

Global event

A UN-hosted global virtual event, Transformation: Toward a Neuro-Inclusive World for All, will feature autistic people from around the world discussing how the transformation in the narrative around neurodiversity can continue to be furthered in order to overcome barriers and improve the lives of autistic people.

The event will also address the contributions that autistic people make – and can make – to society, and to the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals.

The event, to be held on Sunday, can be streamed here.