April 28 (UPI) -- The United Nations Security Council adopted a resolution Thursday condemning the hardline Taliban regime's recent move to ban women from working for the international peace organization in Afghanistan.
Resolution 2681, which passed by unanimous vote, serves as a sharp rebuke to the de facto government's decision in early April to cut off female access to education and employment opportunities, which was "undermining human rights and humanitarian principles in the country," the Security Council said.
The Security Council's 15 member nations signed the resolution to indicate "the world will not sit by silently as women in Afghanistan are erased from society."
While the council's action was not punitive or enforceable, it did put international pressure on the Taliban to re-establish "full, equal, meaningful and safe participation of women and girls in Afghanistan" and "to swiftly reverse its policies and practices restricting women and girls' enjoyment of their human rights and fundamental freedoms," the Security Council said.
Notably, the Security Council acknowledged numerous economic challenges that were straining the regime and called on the United States to free up $7 billion in assets seized from Afghanistan's Central Bank that could benefit the country's citizens.
To date, "not a single penny has been returned" from Washington to the Taliban, Chinese Security Council member Geng Shuang claimed during the session.
During the vote, some Security Council members also emphasized that the goal of the resolution was not to punish or isolate the Taliban but to engage with the government in an effort to promote peace and stability in the region.
"Through its edicts, the Taliban is causing irreparable damage to Afghanistan, erasing women and girls from society and removing itself even further from normalized relations with the international community," the Security Council said in a statement following the vote.
British Security Council member Barbara Woodward, whose country has provided $662 million in humanitarian aid to Afghanistan since April 2021, said the resolution sends a clear message to the Taliban that "there is no justification for what you are doing to women and girls in your country."
Members also stressed the need for an inclusive political process among Afghans, which would lead to a viable democracy with an elected leader.
The Security Council vowed to maintain dialogue with the regime, although some members described the resolution as "counter-productive" due to the component of international pressure.
Russian member Vassily A. Nebenzia -- who served as Security Council president for April -- expressed regret that the Security Council quashed a more ambitious human rights plan in Afghanistan while accusing the United States of a "double standard" for unlawfully holding Taliban assets.
On April 11, the United Nations instructed its entire workforce to stay home in response to the Afghan government's ban on women, which has since been declared illegal under international law.
While the ban applies to the entire country, it strikes the most severe blow to the United Nations, which employs about 3,500 Afghans.
Earlier this month, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres "strongly condemned" the ban and accused the Taliban of efforts to derail the humanitarian mission in the absence of the U.S. military, which withdrew in 2021 after two decades of war.
Since the pullout, Afghanistan's fundamentalist leadership has banned women from attending public universities and from working for world peacekeeping organizations like the United Nations, while also limiting their access to many public spaces around the country.
The United Nations has been responsible for monitoring Taliban abuses following the American departure but now finds itself increasingly on the sidelines of a mounting humanitarian crisis that regularly features public executions, floggings, torture, and violent crackdowns on peaceful protesters.
For now, only a limited number of U.N. employees are in place to perform critical tasks, and the agency has not provided a timeline for when or if full-scale operations will ever resume.
The latest Security Council resolution, meanwhile, stressed the importance of a continued U.N. presence in Afghanistan and called on Taliban authorities and other stakeholders to "ensure the safety, security and freedom of movement of the Organization's personnel" throughout the country.
