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Emma Burnett

Sara Price

Model UN Policy Paper

2/9/2023

France Policy Paper

While several UN members provide Afghanistan with financial aid and support, France

believes that the focus should be on the Human Rights of Women and Girls in Afghanistan.

Afghanistan is one of the very few countries with restricted rights on the female

population within the country, and it only began recently. Through the past few years,

Afghanistan has undergon a lot of trauma. They’ve been taken over by the Taliban more than

once, but their human rights for the women and girls have been taken right out from under their

feet. The biggest change that impacted countries all around Afghanistan, was the fact that women

were stripped from all of their rights. “The new government in Afghanistan has a very oppressive

attitude toward women breaking the Universal Declaration of Human Rights” (Wait, 2). Women

lost their rights to all paying jobs, along with the right to learn. If any women so much as steps

foot in a school or university, they would receive a harsh punishment and acts of violence

directed towards her. “Between January and June, the MoWA registered 1,518 cases of violence

against women, including 33 murders. Beatings, harassment, forced prostitution, deprivation of

alimony, and forced and early marriages remained the main manifestations of violence against

women.” (Amnesty). Women were being escorted home from work one day by Taliban army

members, after they had been told that their roles within the company or organization they had

been a part of would be replaced by male family members or colleagues. Devastated by the
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sudden job and education changes, women and girls began to create secret, underground schools,

which could potentially get them killed.

The fact that women have to hide the fact they are learning, and cannot work paying jobs

or go out in public without being harassed and/or beaten came as a shock to France. Although

France does not have a close relationship with Afghanistan, or chose to stand up for them when

their country fell apart, the Human Rights issue in Afghanistan really startled them. “France will

continue to closely monitor the increasingly troubling human rights situation in Afghanistan. It

will continue to stand steadfastly with the Afghan people and especially Afghan women and

girls, whom it assures of its absolute solidarity.” (France Diplomacy). France has been working

to urge the Taliban to take away the restrictions set on the women and girls in Afghanistan. They

have been evacuating and protecting as much of the female refugees. France, along side other

countries, stand with all Afghans in their demand to exercise their human rights. Their largest

concern will continue to be the welfare, rights, and freedoms of Women in Afghanistan

(Ambassade de France). We propose that urging the Taliban to take off the many restrictions set

on the female population of Afghanistan, while continuing to rescue, evacuate and protect the

women refugees, we could potentially save the Human Rights for the Women and girls in the

country. France would like to see support, teamwork, and possibly military forces used in order

to save these women.

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Works Cited

“Afghanistan Archives.” Amnesty International,

https://www.amnesty.org/en/location/asia-and-the-pacific/south-asia/afghanistan/rep

ort-afghanistan/.

“Foreign Ministers Condemn Taliban's Restrictions on Women and Girls in Afghanistan.”

France in the UK, Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office., 21 Dec.

2022,

https://uk.ambafrance.org/Foreign-ministers-condemn-Taliban-s-restrictions-on-wo

men-and-girls-in.

Ministère de l'Europe et des Affaires étrangères. “Afghanistan – France Condemns the

Taliban Decision to Require Women to Wear Head-to-Toe Coverings in Public

Spaces (09 May 2022).” France Diplomacy - Ministry for Europe and Foreign

Affairs,

https://www.diplomatie.gouv.fr/en/country-files/afghanistan/news/article/afghanista

n-france-condemns-the-taliban-decision-to-require-women-to-wear-head#:~:text=Fr

ance%20will%20continue%20to%20closely,assures%20of%20its%20absolute%20s

olidarity .

Wells, Wait, “Model United Nations, Afghanistan Humanitarian Crisis.”, edited by Sara

Price, 2023, p. 1