INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Afghanistan&s Islamic Emirate government is due to send officials to Qatar next weekend to meet top UN officials and envoys from up to 25
countries for a two-day gathering that rights groups have criticized for not including Afghan women, Reuters reported.It will be the third
such UN-led meeting in Doha, but the first attended by the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (IEA).&Excluding women risks legitimizing the
Taliban&s (IEA) abuses and triggering irreparable harm to the UN&s credibility as an advocate for women&s rights and women&s meaningful
participation,& Tirana Hassan, executive director at Human Rights Watch, said of the third planned Doha meeting.UN political affairs chief
Rosemary DiCarlo, UN special envoy on Afghanistan Roza Otunbayeva, and envoys from various countries are due to meet separately with Afghan
civil society groups after meeting with the IEA, the UN has said.The Doha meetings are &part of a process and not a one-off& and women and
civil society continue to be part of it, UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said on Sunday.&It also aims to encourage the de facto
authorities to engage with the international community through a coordinated and structured approach for the benefit of the Afghan people,&
Dujarric said.&Human rights and the rights of women and girls will feature prominently in all the discussions, certainly from the part of
the UN,& he added.Since the IEA returned to power, most girls have been barred from high school and women from universities.The IEA have
also stopped most Afghan female staff from working at aid agencies, closed beauty salons, barred women from parks and curtailed travel for
women in the absence of a male guardian.The IEA have however repeatedly said they respect women&s rights in accordance with Sharia
law.&Sidelining critical discussions on human rights would be unacceptable and set a deeply damaging precedent,& Amnesty International
Secretary General Agnes Callamard said of the planned Doha meeting.Otunbayeva has meanwhile said the Doha meeting would focus on private
sector business and counter-narcotics, issues she described as linked to women&s rights.She also said the upcoming meeting had &generated
significant expectations that cannot realistically be met in a single meeting.&&We are trying to establish a process and preserve an
important mechanism of consultation
We must be realistic about how much each meeting in this process can deliver, especially at this early stage where confidence and trust are
insufficient,& she told the UN Security Council on Friday. Related Stories: UNSC reviews report of women&s rights violations in
Afghanistan Women&s rights in Afghanistan not negotiable: rights groupsThe post Rights groups upset over exclusion of Afghan women at
UN-led Doha meeting first appeared on Ariana News.
