CDA Vrouwen over de situatie van vrouwen in Afghanistan

Afghaanse vrouwen raken hun vrijheid kwijt en leven in angst. CDA Vrouwen vraagt de Nederlandse overheid dringend om actief ondersteuning en hulp te bieden. CDA Vrouwen onderschrijft het statement en de dringende oproep van de Europese koepelorganisatie en brengt die onder de aandacht bij de Tweede Kamer en de ministeries van Buitenlandse zaken en Ontwikkelingssamenwerking.

STATEMENT ON AFGHANISTAN
25 August 2021

EPP WOMEN, the women’s organization of the European Peoples Party (EPP):

• Is deeply concerned by the increasingly dangerous situation in Afghanistan since the Taliban took power in Kabul;
• Emphasizing the consistent support of EPP WOMEN for women’s rights, EPPW in particular underlines the statement of UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, in which he describes it as horrible and heart-breaking to see that the rights of Afghan girls and women are about to be taken away immediately in the Taliban-controlled areas;
• Highly welcomes and gives its full support to the statement of the European Union and the United States and 18 other states 1, in which they express their deep concern for women and girls in Afghanistan, for their rights to education, employment and freedom of movement, and call upon the Taliban to avoid all forms of discrimination and abuse and to preserve women’s rights;

Therefore, EPP WOMEN:

• Urgently calls upon the European Commission and all EU Member States to favour the most generous asylum policy for Afghan women and girls as possible;
• Urgently calls upon the European Commission and the EU Member States to take our responsibility for Afghan women and seek acute solutions, consisting of:
• Giving women in Afghanistan all humanitarian support and assistance, including financial assistance, to empower them to have their voices heard;
• Making the greatest possible financial and political commitment to organizations fighting for women’s and girls’ rights in Afghanistan;
• Urgently starting a dialogue with the new Taliban government, in which pressure is being put on the new political leaders to strictly respect women and girls’ rights in accordance with the Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination of Women (CEDAW) and the Istanbul Convention on gender-based violence;
• Ensuring that issues regarding women’s political participation, eradicating illiteracy and ensuring access for girls and women to education and to economic resources (i.e. Millennium Development Goals) are an integrated part of the policy of the EU and its Member States towards Afghanistan. Afghan women, like all the women in the world, have the right to live in dignity and security.

1 Including Australia, Brazil, Canada, Senegal, Norway, Argentina and New Zealand