The World Organization of United Cities and Local Governments (UCLG), gathering over 240.000 member worldwide expresses its deep concern about the ongoing situation in Afghanistan and the impact on the human rights and livelihoods of its people, in particular women and girls that might be again deprived from the most basic rights including, movement, work and education.
Afghan women and girls, as all Afghan people, deserve to live in safety, security and dignity. Any form of discrimination and abuse should be prevented, human rights need to be protected and preserved for everyone.
In this trying context we call:
- On the international community active in Afghanistan to spare no efforts to seek safe passage out of the country for all that want to leave as guaranteeing mobility at this point is critical to safety.
- On any future government to ensure that rights and freedoms that have become an integral part of the life of women and girls in Afghanistan during the last twenty years to be protected. We further make a special call for the municipalities and the local and regional public officials to be protected in order to guarantee service delivery.
- On the United Nations to stay in Afghanistan and continue to deliver support to the people in need.
We encourage our membership to:
- Welcome refugees and mobilise support in partnership with other levels of governments, NGOs and the Afghani diaspora
- Support the United Nations, in particular the International Organization on Migration, and international community in their efforts to ensure the delivery of humanitarian aid and human rights.
In the hope and conviction that the international community can stand to the task and that humanity will not let the people of Afghanistan, its women and girls’ rights, fall back twenty years; we commit to solidarity, working together and standing for human rights and making sure that the voices of the people, in particular women and girls, of are heard.
