The UN Secretary-General's special representative on Children and Armed Conflict in Afghanistan said in a new report that children in Afghanistan remained highly vulnerable to grave violations, despite an overall decrease in grave violations compared to the last reporting period, following the “takeover of Kabul by the Taliban”.

The report, which was released on December 22, 2023, says that children’s access to basic services was “disrupted due to protracted conflict, displacement, extreme poverty and food insecurity, lack of livelihood opportunities and lack of investment in public services, and natural disasters, increasing their vulnerability to grave violations such as recruitment and use, sexual violence, school drop-out, and unsafe migration, including forced return from Pakistan.”

“The indefinite suspension of girls’ secondary and tertiary education affected girls’ rights to education and exposed them to heightened risks and harmful coping mechanisms,” the report said.

TOLOnews profiled 16-years old, Mahboobullah, who is working at a shop in Kabul to support his family of six people.

Mahboobullah complained of facing dire economic challenges and urged the Islamic Emirate to help him.

“We should study to reach a position and become something in the future. There are a lot of children who are working as shoe polishers or in other fields,” he said.

The report also said that overall, 4,519 grave violations against 3,545 children aged from a few months to 17 years were verified between 1 January 2021 and 31 December 2022, with most of them attributed to the Taliban.

But the Islamic Emirate’s spokesman, Zabiullah Mujahid, said that they are supporting the children and that there are no teenagers among the Islamic Emirate’s fighters.

“We have had this rule previously that those who are teenagers are not allowed to work. After the Islamic Emirate came to power in Afghanistan, all of the security departments have professional appointments and there are no teenagers among them,” he said.

Virginia Gamba, Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict called on “de facto authorities” to reopen schools above grade six to all girls and lift the suspension on girls’ secondary education and women’s access to university education.

“Millions of girls continue to be prevented from attending secondary school,” she said. “This, combined with social norms and harmful traditional practices, has exposed many girls to extreme forms of violence and abusive behaviour, such as honour killings, child marriage, domestic abuse, and sexual violence.”