UN human rights chief Volker Türk appealed for dialogue between Afghanistan and Pakistan amid border clashes and deadly airstrikes, while condemning ever harsher “apartheid” edicts issued by the Afghan de facto authorities that continue to severely impact women and girls, UN News reports.
“This situation calls for urgent political dialogue, rather than escalating the use of force,” said the High Commissioner for Human Rights, following a sharp increase in civilian casualties in cross-border clashes with Pakistani military forces, who have been reportedly targeting armed militants sheltering in Afghanistan.
According to the UN Mission in Afghanistan, UNAMA, 70 civilians were killed and 478 were injured in Afghanistan in the last three months of 2025. “There were further casualties earlier this week, when 13 civilians were killed and several more injured following airstrikes by Pakistani forces,” Mr. Türk said.
The latest batch of Taliban decrees since the group overran Kabul in 2021 increases the number of crimes punishable by death and allows women and children to be beaten in their homes.
Criticism of the authorities is also a criminal offence and the overriding conclusion is that Afghanistan is now “a graveyard for human rights”, Mr. Türk told the Human Rights Council in Geneva, the UN’s top human rights forum.
“The system of segregation is reminiscent of apartheid, based on gender rather than race,” he said. The de facto authorities have, in effect, criminalized the presence of women and girls in public life. They are banned from secondary education and above, and from most employment. Discrimination affects their healthcare, their access to civic space, and their freedom of movement and expression.”
