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UN Human Rights Spokesperson Ravina Shamdasani on new repressive law in Afghanistan
“The newly-adopted law on “Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice” by the de facto authorities in Afghanistan cements policies that completely erase women’s presence in public – silencing their voices, and depriving them of their individual autonomy, effectively attempting to render them into faceless, voiceless shadows,” she said.
“This is utterly intolerable. UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk calls for this egregious law to be immediately repealed,” Shamdasani stated.
“The long list of repressive provisions that this law imposes on women reinforces a number of existing restrictions that violate their fundamental human rights, including their freedom of movement, their freedom of expression, and their right to live free from discrimination. The law includes the requirement to wear clothes that completely cover their bodies from head to toe, including their faces; a ban for transport providers on transporting women unless they are accompanied by a male relative; and the prohibition on women’s voices being heard in public,” Shamdasani said.
Other restrictions in the law, which are vaguely defined, affect other human rights, such as the right to freely practice one’s religion. The law also grants State agents broad, discretionary powers to detain people, impose punishments on them, or refer matters to courts
“The law further tightens the grip on the media sector, with a ban on publishing images of human beings, presumably also those of de facto officials,” the spokesperson said.
“We call on the de facto authorities to immediately repeal this legislation, which is in clear violation of Afghanistan’s obligations under international human rights law,” she said.
“Disempowering and rendering invisible and voiceless half the population of Afghanistan will only worsen the human rights and humanitarian crisis in the country. Rather, this is a time to bring together all the people of Afghanistan, irrespective of their gender, religion or ethnicity, to help resolve the many challenges the country faces,” Shamdasani said.
“When I was in Afghanistan, about two years ago, this should come as no surprise, we were sitting around the table with several women representatives, who were sharing with us the issues that their communities face and solutions. These women were full of solutions. They are in contact with people in the community at a very close level. They understand the issues that are facing the most vulnerable. They have solutions. They need to be given a seat at the table to help implement those solutions. These are partners who are being completely silenced and they're attempting to render them into shadows. Their voices are no longer permissible. Education is no longer permissible. you cannot even see their faces. This needs to stop, and we need to continue talking about it. We need to continue advocating for it and putting pressure on the authorities to listen,” she said.
ENDS
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Ravina Shamdasani - + 41 22 917 9169 / ravina.shamdasani@un.org or
Thameen Al-Kheetan - +41 76 223 77 62 / thameen.alkheetan@un.org
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STORY: UN Human Rights Spokesperson Ravina Shamdasani on new repressive law in Afghanistan
TRT: 03:11
SOURCE: UNTV / OHCHR
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: English/NATS
ASPECT RATIO: 16:9
DATELINE: 27 August 2024 – GENEVA, SWITZERLAND
SHOTLIST
- Exterior shot: Palais des Nations
- Interior shot: Briefing room
- SOUNDBITE (English)—Ravina Shamdasani, Spokesperson for the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR): “The newly-adopted law on “Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice” by the de facto authorities in Afghanistan cements policies that completely erase women’s presence in public – silencing their voices, and depriving them of their individual autonomy, effectively attempting to render them into faceless, voiceless shadows.”
- Cutaway: briefing room
- SOUNDBITE (English)—Ravina Shamdasani, Spokesperson for the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR): “This is utterly intolerable. UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk calls for this egregious law to be immediately repealed.”
- Cutaway: briefing room
- Ravina Shamdasani, Spokesperson for the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR): “The long list of repressive provisions that this law imposes on women reinforces a number of existing restrictions that violate their fundamental human rights, including their freedom of movement, their freedom of expression, and their right to live free from discrimination. The law includes the requirement to wear clothes that completely cover their bodies from head to toe, including their faces; a ban for transport providers on transporting women unless they are accompanied by a male relative; and the prohibition on women’s voices being heard in public.”
- Cutaway: briefing room
- Ravina Shamdasani, Spokesperson for the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR): “The law further tightens the grip on the media sector, with a ban on publishing images of human beings, presumably also those of de facto officials.”
- Cutaway: briefing room
- Ravina Shamdasani, Spokesperson for the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR): “We call on the de facto authorities to immediately repeal this legislation, which is in clear violation of Afghanistan’s obligations under international human rights law.”
- Cutaway: briefing room
- Ravina Shamdasani, Spokesperson for the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR): “Disempowering and rendering invisible and voiceless half the population of Afghanistan will only worsen the human rights and humanitarian crisis in the country. Rather, this is a time to bring together all the people of Afghanistan, irrespective of their gender, religion or ethnicity, to help resolve the many challenges the country faces.”
- Cutaway: briefing room
- Ravina Shamdasani, Spokesperson for the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR): “When I was in Afghanistan, about two years ago, this should come as no surprise, we were sitting around the table with several women representatives, who were sharing with us the issues that their communities face and solutions. These women were full of solutions. They are in contact with people in the community at a very close level. They understand the issues that are facing the most vulnerable. They have solutions. They need to be given a seat at the table to help implement those solutions. These are partners who are being completely silenced and they're attempting to render them into shadows. Their voices are no longer permissible. Education is no longer permissible. you cannot even see their faces. This needs to stop, and we need to continue talking about it. We need to continue advocating for it and putting pressure on the authorities to listen.”
- Cutaway: briefing room
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In 2025, for the fourth consecutive year, every major glaciated region on Earth lost ice mass, leading to short-term hazards including floods and long-term water insecurity, according to WMO.
Responding to a question about whether the changing global water cycle might have contributed to the deadly Nepal-China flooding disaster, Ms. Saulo explained that melting ice and rock was just one factor in the chain of events that ultimately sent a massive and deadly wall of water and debris downstream on 26 August, killing at least 1,367 people.
“You asked if it could happen again? Absolutely; the problem in this region is that there’s 63,700 glaciers at the last count,” she told a Press Conference in Geneva. “Even if you’re looking with remote sensing with satellites at these glaciers, you might see some faults, you might see some slight shifting, that does not mean necessarily catastrophic collapse. So, in order to plan for this, it’s very, very difficult. But the international community is looking very hard at ways in which we can bring people together to solve some of these monitoring issues.”
Data indicates that glaciers shrank between 2023 and 2025 with cumulative losses of 1,400 gigatonnes of water – or about one third of annual fresh water needs.
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Mr. Jenkinson said governments need to prepare for “moving baselines” as historical patterns become less reliable.
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