Rowena Jones and Nibha Rao Kondapalli submitted a written statement to the 52nd Session of the United Nations Human Rights Council regarding women’s education in Afghanistan on behalf of the Next Century Foundation.
Expressing grave concern at the suspension of women and girls’ access to education, and highlighting both its devastating personal repercussions and its wider economic impact, they call for urgent international engagement with the de facto government of Afghanistan on this issue. They propose targeted donor funding to individual schools and community initiatives as a means of providing as many educational opportunities as possible without legitimising the Taliban’s authority, and call for financial support for local advocates and NGOs to encourage civic action to bring about meaningful change for women and girls. Finally, they argue that influential UN member states should offer the de facto government the opportunity of international recognition, conditional upon ensuring women’s access to education.
