Richard Bennett, the UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights for Afghanistan, addressed a press conference regarding his recent report, which highlights the deterioration of the human rights situation under the rule of the Islamic Emirate in Afghanistan.

During the briefing, Bennett emphasized the importance of Afghan women's participation in international meetings and face-to-face discussions with the officials of the Islamic Emirate in Afghanistan.

He also noted that his report documented public executions and punishments in Afghanistan and called for accountability from those responsible for such actions in the country.

"We have documented public executions and corporal punishments recently. Peaceful dissent is stifled. Violence and the threat of violence are used with impunity to control and instill fear in the population. Those responsible for this must be held to account,” Richard Bennett said.

The UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights for Afghanistan added that there is little prospect for significant changes in the situation for women in Afghanistan in the near future.

Speaking at the press conference, Bennett mentioned that his next report, to be presented in June, will focus on mechanisms for addressing the living conditions of half of the population in Afghanistan. 

"Every conversation by the international community be it at UN agencies, or states, should include human rights and the situation of women in the agenda, no matter what the rest of the conversation is about, it might be about economy or about agriculture or about technology, but it needs to include human rights and every face-to-face meeting should, if it is a delegation, it should be a delegation that includes women and those women should be speaking directly to the Taliban,” Richard Bennett added.

While the Islamic Emirate has not yet commented on Richard Bennett’s remarks, they called his previous report on the human rights situation in Afghanistan "repetitive and biased."

Richard Bennett on Thursday, in the fifty-fifth session of the United Nations Human Rights Council, expressed concern over educational and work restrictions, detentions, disappearances, and public executions in Afghanistan.

He called on the international community to condition the normalization of relations with the Islamic Emirate on the improvement of the human rights situation in Afghanistan.