KABUL, Afghanistan — A human rights organization has condemned the Taliban’s decision to bar Richard Bennett, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on human rights in Afghanistan, from entering the country, calling it a violation of international law.
In a statement, the Human Rights Defenders Forum criticized the Taliban’s move, stating, “Mr. Bennett’s mission is grounded in the principles and norms of international human rights law and was sanctioned by the United Nations Human Rights Council. The primary purpose of his mission is to monitor the human rights situation, document violations, and provide detailed reports on the state of human rights in Afghanistan.”
The organization emphasized that Bennett’s mission operates solely within the framework of human rights and is a crucial process for advocacy and the protection of human rights in Afghanistan. “The Special Rapporteur’s work is vital in highlighting the key demands of the Afghan people for the improvement of human rights and plays a fundamental role in providing strategic perspectives for the human rights community in Afghanistan,” the statement added.
In a separate response, the Afghanistan Freedom Front, an anti-Taliban group, also denounced the travel ban, underscoring the “extraordinary importance” of Bennett’s mission in exposing “gross human rights violations” and the deprivation of basic human rights in Afghanistan. The group called on the international community to take the “dire human rights situation” in Afghanistan seriously and to pressure the Taliban, whom they described as a “terrorist group,” to comply with human rights standards.
“The widespread and egregious human rights abuses are a deliberate policy of the illegitimate Taliban regime, which is why they refuse to allow the U.N. Special Rapporteur to visit Afghanistan,” the group said in its statement. The Afghanistan Freedom Front argued that the Taliban’s actions reflect their official stance toward the “dire human rights situation” in the country, as they seek to prevent the world from becoming aware of the “horrific” conditions under their “violent and oppressive” rule.
Meanwhile, Zabihullah Mujahid, the Taliban’s spokesperson, stated in an interview with Deutsche Welle that Bennett had been expelled from Afghanistan because he was “hired to propagate against the country under Taliban rule” and was not considered a credible figure by the Taliban. Mujahid added that Bennett is no longer allowed to enter Afghanistan.
However, Bennett, in an interview with Amu TV, said that the Taliban have yet to provide specific reasons for the travel ban. He suggested that his critical reports and statements regarding the Taliban’s human rights policies likely prompted the ban. Bennett has not visited Afghanistan since May of last year, and the Taliban have informed his team that they will no longer host the U.N. Special Rapporteur in the country.
