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EP plenary: The crackdown on the right to education and education rights activists in Afghanistan

European External Action Service (EEAS)

19.04.2023
Strasbourg
EEAS Press Team

Speech delivered by Commissioner for Health and Food Safety, Stella Kyriakides, on behalf of High-Representative/Vice-President Josep Borrell

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Madam President, Honourable Members of the European Parliament,

Since the Taliban forcefully took power in Afghanistan, they have structurally and systematically violated economic, social and cultural, political and civil rights of the people of Afghanistan, especially of women and girls.

Afghanistan is the only country in the world that prohibits education beyond primary level for girls. The Taliban's decisions of denying girls' access to secondary and higher education are blatant violations of the fundamental right to education based on equal opportunity and enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and several international human rights treaties to which Afghanistan is a state party.

No religious or social reason could ever justify such unequal treatment.

At a time when Afghanistan is facing one of the worst economic and humanitarian crises in the world, the Afghan people's predicament is steadily made worse by the Taliban, who deprive women and girls from their right to education, work and other opportunities to contribute to socio-economic life.

The United Nations estimates that, since March 2022, 1.1 million girls have been deprived of secondary education, as their schooling was banned. Almost 4 million children are out-of-school in Afghanistan - 60% of them girls. In certain provinces, it is reported that the official curriculum is being replaced by religious education in madrassas and that forced marriages of girls have increased significantly. Activists who are advocating for girls' and boys' education are being threatened, arrested, tortured and many are being pushed to exile.

The European Union's position is very clear: We remain committed to providing support for the Afghan people as long as this can be continued in line with the European Union's principled approach, particularly the rights of women and girls. The European Union will continue to call for, and exert pressure, to ensure that all Afghan children, girls and boys alike, have the chance to learn.

We will also continue to support Afghan human rights activists and civil society as we do worldwide, reflecting a fundamental principle of the European Union. This support [includes] raising individual cases of human rights defenders in our engagement with the de facto authorities and continuation of safe passage operations for those Afghans particularly at risk.

Matiullah Wesa is the head of Pen Path, a civil society organisation in Afghanistan campaigning for the reopening of girls schools. He was detained on 27 March when leaving a mosque in Kabul by a group of armed men who claimed to represent the General Directorate of Intelligence (GDI) of the Taliban. His arrest was confirmed by the Taliban representatives on 29 March.

The EU Delegation in Kabul has been in close contact with Matiullah Wesa over the past months. He had visited Brussels in December last year.

Education activist Matiullah Wesa remains in custody among other Afghan human rights defenders, and you can rest assured that we are following, and we will continue to follow his case very closely.

Thank you.

Link to video (starting as of 32:10): https://audiovisual.ec.europa.eu/en/video/I-239844