By Mohammad Haroon Alim in Khaama Press, 19 Dec 2020 02:28 PM
United Nations Security Council extended the mandate of team monitoring sanctions against individuals and entities associated with the Taliban.
The council extended the sanctions based on serious concerns over the ongoing violence in Afghanistan.
The 15 member council ordered a monitoring team to gather information on instances of non-compliance with the measures by unanimously adopting resolution 2557 (2020).
According to the statement, this would facilitate requests by the Member States, and provide capacity-building support.
The Afghan government and Taliban efforts were welcomed on facilitating intra-afghan talks and the council highlighted the importance of ensuring that the Monitoring Team received necessary administrative and substantive support to effectively fulfill the mandates in a safe and timely manner.
This comes as December 17th, 2021, Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Afghanistan, Deborah Lyons briefed United Nations Security Council that “, the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan and the Taliban have made incremental, but genuine progress in their peace talks. On 2 December, the two parties announced that they had agreed to the “rules and procedures” for negotiations. The two sides then formed a working committee to discuss the agenda, and both parties presented to one another an initial list of topics for discussion. These developments are early, but a positive sign that both sides are willing and able to compromise when needed”.
She added, “Regrettably, the unrelenting violence remains a serious obstacle to peace and a threat to the region. I will admit that we are still compiling this year’s data, but I would like to mention a few provisional statistics on the impact of the violence”.
“In October and November, improvised explosive devices, IEDs, caused over 60 percent more civilian casualties than in the same period last year. In the third quarter of 2020, child casualties rose 25 percent over the previous three months, while attacks against schools in the same period increased four-fold. In the first 11 months of 2020, targeted killings by anti-government elements rose by nearly 40 percent compared to the same period in 2019. It is no surprise then, that the Global Peace Index for 2020 ranked Afghanistan as the least peaceful country in the world for the second year in a row”. She said.
Lyons stressed on “a full security transition, peace negotiations that must and will advance, the health and socio-economic challenges of COVID, the ongoing commitment of the international donors, and the expected results of even more regional cooperation. All of this with whatever political and societal changes come from it. Clearly, Afghanistan will continue to move forward in this new year; but equally will continue to need the dedicated support of this Council”.
https://www.khaama.com/un-security-council-extends-mandate-of-team-monitoring-sanctions-against-taliban-67575777/
