Geneva, Aug 18 :The United Nations Human Rights Council announced Tuesday a special session on Afghanistan for August 24 to address the “serious human rights concerns” following the Taliban takeover.
The meeting, at the UN’s Palais des Nations headquarters in Geneva, is being convened following an official request by the representatives of Pakistan — coordinator of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation — and Afghanistan.
The joint submission has been supported by 89 countries so far, the UN’s top rights body said in a statement.
Calling a special session outside of the thrice-yearly regular meetings requires the backing of at least a third of the 47 members of the council — 16 states.
The request has thus far been supported by 29 of the 47, including Argentina, Britain, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Mexico and Afghanistan’s neighbours Pakistan and Uzbekistan.
Sixty other countries have so far backed the move, including Algeria, Belgium, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Kazakhstan, Malaysia, Nigeria, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Spain, Syria, Tajikistan, Turkey, Turkmenistan and the United Arab Emirates.
The Taliban took effective control of Afghanistan on Sunday when president Ashraf Ghani fled and the insurgents walked into Kabul with no opposition.
It capped a staggeringly fast rout of Afghanistan’s major cities following two decades of war that claimed hundreds of thousands of lives.
Tens of thousands of people have tried to flee the country to escape the hardline Islamist rule expected under the Taliban, or fearing direct retribution for siding with the US-backed government that ruled for the past two decades.
