UNITED NATIONS: The Taliban authorities in Afghanistan must immediately release activists detained for advocating for girls’ and women’s rights, the UN human rights office, OHCHR, said Wednesday, expressing alarm over the ongoing arrests.
Since the beginning of the year, several civil society activists and journalists have been detained for speaking out against Taliban policies that restrict women and girls’ access to education, work, and most other areas of public life.
“No one should be detained for speaking out in defence of their fundamental rights and the rights of others,” OHCHR Spokesperson Jeremy Laurence said in a statement issued in Geneva.
“Arrest or detention as punishment for the legitimate exercise of fundamental rights, such as the rights to freedom of opinion and expression, is arbitrary under international human rights law,” he added. –Agencies
