Media Coverage

The United Nations aid chief has said the humanitarian community was speaking with Taliban officials to try and gain further exemptions and written guidelines to allow some female aid workers to operate in Afghanistan despite a ban on women NGO staff. It was the second UN-led delegation that came to...

A UN delegation, which held talks with senior Taliban officials in Afghanistan, has made headway on women’s rights, the UN Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed told Al Jazeera on Saturday, cautioning that much remains to be achieved. The high-level meeting earlier this week comes amid widespread...

Sierra Leone has passed what has been described as a "ground-breaking" law to improve women's rights. The law states that 30 percent of public and private jobs must be reserved for women. Under the new Gender Equality and Women's Empowerment Act, women also benefit from ringfenced senior positions...

Germany’s lower house has recognized as “genocide” the 2014 massacre by the armed group ISIL (ISIS) against the Yazidi minority group in Iraq and Syria. After seizing large parts of Iraq and Syria in 2014, ISIL killed more than 1,200 Yazidis, enslaved 7,000 Yazidi women and girls, and displaced most...

The United Nations deputy secretary-general discussed women's rights with Afghanistan's acting foreign minister on Wednesday after the Taliban authorities banned most female aid workers and stopped women and girls from attending high school and university. Amina Mohammed "stressed the need to uphold...

The UN says there was an “alarming” rise in the number of Rohingya refugees lost at sea fleeing their Myanmar homeland or Bangladesh last year, warning more would die without concerted action. More than 3,500 Rohingya attempted sea crossings in 2022, representing a huge increase on the year before...

Several members of the United Nations Security Council have urged the Taliban to end its repressive treatment of women in Afghanistan, as the group continued to impose restrictive policies on their education and work. The 11 members — Albania, Brazil, Ecuador, France, Gabon, Japan, Malta...

The UN human rights chief says the flurry of death sentences handed down following the outbreak of civil unrest in Iran amounts to “state sanctioned killing,” with executions being used to strike fear into the population and stamp out dissent. The Oslo-based group Iran Human Rights said on Monday...

The United Nations has announced that some “time-critical” programmes in Afghanistan have temporarily stopped and warned many other activities will also likely be paused following the Taliban’s ban on female aid workers. The UN’s Emergency Relief Coordinator Martin Griffiths, as well as the heads of...

Female students have been banned from private and public universities in Afghanistan effective immediately and until further notice, a Taliban government spokesman said Tuesday in the latest edict cracking down on women's rights and freedoms. Despite initially promising a more moderate rule...