Increased Global

• Human rights campaigners are expressing growing concern that increasing global diplomatic ties with the Taliban are undermining pressure for human rights improvements in Afghanistan. • Fereshta Abbasi of Human Rights Watch highlighted the tension between the necessity of engagement for aid agencies to mitigate the humanitarian crisis and the ambiguity of the long-term goals of these contacts. • The situation matters because normalization of relations may signal acceptance of the Taliban's governance without securing essential protections for the Afghan population.

Campaigners fear deeper diplomatic contacts are undermining demands for improvements in human rights The Taliban in Afghanistan have launched a diplomatic effort to end their isolation as major regional and international powers show a readiness to engage more closely with the repressive regime despite its systematic human rights abuses.Five years after the Taliban took power, an increasing number of countries are renewing ties or scaling up diplomatic contacts with the hardline Islamists, who seized power in Kabul in 2021 after 20 years of brutal insurgent warfare. Continue reading...