Tag Archives: afghanistan

Funding cuts in Afghanistan mean ‘lives lost and lives less lived’

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Many women came to the clinic who had walked multiple hours to receive maternal care – some of them with their newborns and some heavily pregnant.

And then there were the health workers themselves, committed to serving those in need in hard-to-reach areas of the impoverished Taliban-controlled nation.

‘Off the radar’

These were some of the scenes witnessed up close by Andrew Saberton, Deputy Executive Director with the UN’s reproductive health agency (UNFPA), on a mission to assess the impact of the recent steep funding cuts.

“I saw and understood the devastating impacts that the massive cuts to UNFPA will have in one of the world’s greatest humanitarian crises, a crisis which may be off the radar of the news but remains one of the world’s greatest crises,” Mr. Saberton told journalists in New York on Wednesday.

During his trip, the senior official visited UN-supported services in Kabul, Bamyan and the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan.

He hoped to understand the difference that UNFPA is making in Afghanistan while also getting a better sense of the impact of funding cuts.

Andrew Saberton (second right), UNFPA Deputy Executive Director for Management, visits the obstetric fistula ward in Kabul, Afghanistan, where survivors receive care.

Andrew Saberton (second right), UNFPA Deputy Executive Director for Management, visits the obstetric fistula ward in Kabul, Afghanistan, where survivors receive care.

Budget slashed

The United States has recently announced cuts of approximately $330 million to UNFPA worldwide, $102 million of which will directly impact UNFPA’s work in Afghanistan, according to Mr. Saberton.

Most of this funding would have been used towards the provision of family health and mobile care, both of which are essential in Afghanistan which already has one of the highest maternal mortality rates in the world.

This funding would also have gone towards the providing much needed psychosocial support.

He estimates that 6.9 million women and children in Afghanistan will be affected by the cuts. Moreover, UNFPA will only be able to support approximately 400 of the current 900 health clinics that it supports in Afghanistan, each of which provides life-saving care.

Providing aid with few resources

Despite these challenges, Saberton emphasized that UNFPA will remain in Afghanistan and will continue providing life-saving care.

“UNFPA will be staying to deliver, but we cannot sustain our response without help. We need urgent support to keep these services running and to protect the dignity, health and lives of Afghan women and newborns,” he said.

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Afghanistan: Taliban restrictions on women’s rights intensify

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The mission continued to receive reports that Afghan women are being denied the opportunity to join the workforce, are unable to access services without a male relative while girls are still deprived of their right to education.

Since the Taliban took over the country from the democratically-elected Government in August 2021, women and girls have been systemically excluded from equal participation in society, the report confirms.

UNAMA, whose mandate includes monitoring human rights, also reported public floggings, shrinking civic space, and brutal attacks on former government officials.

Beauty salons shuttered

Officials have reportedly shut down beauty salons run by women in their homes and women’s radio stations in various provinces, UNAMA said.

In the province of Kandahar, de facto inspectors asked shopkeepers in a market to report women unaccompanied by a guardian (mahram) and deny them entry into their shops.

At one hospital, authorities ordered staff not to provide care to unaccompanied female patients.

Forced conversions

Taliban authorities have also increased enforcement of repressive restrictions on media outlets, ramped up corporal punishment, and the clampdown on religious freedom and re-education.

Between 17 January and 3 February, in Badakhshan province in northeastern Afghanistan, at least 50 Ismaili men were taken from their homes at night and forced to convert to Sunni Islam under the threat of violence, the report details.

More than 180 people, including women and girls, have been flogged for the offences of adultery and practicing homosexuality during the reporting period, in public venues attended by Taliban officials.

Taliban claim support for women’s rights

Despite documented evidence from the report that de facto authorities are continuing to violate international norms and rights protections, Taliban officials disagree.

“Ensuring the dignity, honor, and Sharia-based entitlements of women remains a paramount priority for the Islamic Emirate,” Taliban spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid said in a social media post on March 8, International Women’s Day.

“All fundamental rights afforded to Afghan women have been safeguarded in strict accordance with Islamic Sharia law, as well as the cultural and traditional frameworks of Afghan society,” he added.

International legal action

UNAMA has called for action to restore women’s and girls’ rights at the international level.

In January, the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued arrest warrants for Taliban Leader Haibatullah Akhundzada and Chief Justice Abdul Hakim Haqqan over persecution on gender grounds, a crime against humanity under the Rome Statute.

The Taliban rejected the ruling, citing national sovereignty and religious traditions.

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CAA comes into effect, Minorities from Pakistan, Bangladesh, Afghanistan to get India Citizenship

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The Union Home Ministry on Monday, March 11, 2024, notified the rules for the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), providing for granting citizenship to people of certain faiths facing persecution in neighbouring countries like Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Afghanistan and it applies to those who moved to India before 2015.

An MHA spokesperson announced that immigrants eligible for citizenship under the CAA must submit their applications online through a dedicated web portal. The CAA, a key component of the BJP’s 2019 Lok Sabha manifesto, facilitates citizenship for non-Muslims, particularly Hindus, Sikhs, Jains, Buddhists, and Parsis who migrated to India before December 31, 2014, due to religious persecution in neighboring countries.

Despite protests from the Muslim community and opposition parties, the CAA was passed by Parliament in December 2019. Home Minister Amit Shah reaffirmed that the CAA would be implemented before the upcoming Lok Sabha elections in April/May.

Shah emphasized that the CAA, which excludes Muslims because they do not face religious persecution in their home countries, aims to provide citizenship rather than revoke it. He assured Indian Muslim citizens that the bill would not affect their citizenship status and urged the opposition not to politicize the issue along communal lines.

According to Shah, the CAA seeks to grant citizenship retroactively from the immigrants’ entry into India, closing legal proceedings against them and safeguarding their business interests. Expired passports and visas of eligible minorities will not be considered illegal.

Shah highlighted the decline of minority populations in Pakistan and Bangladesh due to persecution, leading many to flee to India. He attributed the necessity of the CAA to the failure of the Nehru-Liaqat pact in safeguarding minority rights in these countries after India’s partition based on religious lines.

Africa declared free from wild polio; Will South Asia be Next?

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The World Health Organization has declared Africa free of wild polio as no new cases of wild poliovirus have been recorded on the continent since 2016, but other types of the virus persist

The Union Minister for Health and Family Welfare, Dr. Harsh Vardhan administering the polio vaccine drops to children under-five years to mark the World Polio Day, in New Delhi on October 24, 2014. (PIB)

The continent’s last case of wild polio was recorded four years ago in northeast Nigeria. There are now just just two countries on Earth where the virus remains endemic — Afghanistan and Pakistan, both part of South Asia.

However, Africa’s fight against polio isn’t over as in rare cases, infections can be caused by the oral polio vaccine. These vaccine-derived polio strains can spread in areas where many children have not been immunized, so vaccination must continue.

The Africa Regional Certification Commission, an independent body overseeing the eradication of polio, has certified that all 47 countries in the WHO’s Africa Region have eradicated the virus after a long program of vaccination and surveillance.

Since there is no cure for the disease, which can cause irreversible paralysis and can be fatal if breathing muscles are affected, but vaccination can protect people for life. The certification is a “historic” achievement, says Pascal Mkanda, coordinator of the polio-eradication program at the WHO Regional Office for Africa in Brazzaville, Republic of Congo.

A region is certified as free of wild polio after three years have passed without the virus being detected in any of its countries. Africa’s last case of wild polio was recorded four years ago in northeast Nigeria. As recently as 2012, the country accounted for more than half of all polio cases worldwide.

Chima Ohuabunwo, an epidemiologist at Morehouse School of Medicine in Atlanta, Georgia, who coordinated a project to support polio eradication in Nigeria, says that engaging with traditional and religious leaders was crucial in the effort to persuade parents to vaccinate their children.

Infographic: Polio today: Map showing worldwide polio cases recorded between August 2010 and 2020.
Source: WHO

Despite the eradication of wild poliovirus, Africa’s fight against polio isn’t over. In many countries, vaccination is done with oral drops containing a weakened form of the poliovirus, which sometimes mutates into a strain that can spread in under-immunized communities and cause paralysis.

Vaccine-Derived Polio Cases

Since August 2019, more than 20 countries worldwide have reported cases of vaccine-derived polio (see ‘Polio today’). Because these outbreaks can usually be brought under control with further immunization, countries should continue to vaccinate as many people as possible, Ohuabunwo says.

Wild polio cases have decreased globally by more than 99% since 1988, but the virus is still endemic in Afghanistan and Pakistan, which have reported dozens of cases annually. Unless the two neighbours in South Asia focus on peace-building, reducing vaccine hesitancy, and boosting basic medical services and routine immunizations, it will be difficult to eradicate it here, said Zulfiqar Bhutta, a public-health researcher at Aga Khan University in Karachi, Pakistan.  “Polio anywhere is polio everywhere,” he reminded.

India Signed Air Services Agreements or Drafts with 114 Countries So Far

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India has so far signed and initiated Air Services Agreement with 114 countries and latest one was with Rwanda, signed on 20th February 2017 at Kigali, informed Minister of State for Civil Aviation Jayant Sinha in written reply to a question in Lok Sabha on Wednesday.

The Air Services Agreements between India and other countries have the potential to spur greater trade, investment, tourism and cultural exchange and help rejunevate the civil aviation sector, he said.

The agreements enable an environment for enhanced and seamless connectivity, while providing commercial opportunities to the carriers of both the sides ensuring greater safety and security.

The same was discussed when the Deputy Foreign Minister of Afghanistan Mr. Hikmat Karzai visited India on Wednesday on the sidelines of the International Counter Terrorism Conference. Both sides discussed among others Air corridor for trade between Afghanistan and India.

Usually the Air Services agreements provide for both countries to designate one or more airlines with the right to establish offices in the territory of the other country for the promotion end sale of air services.

The designated airlines will have fair and equal opportunity to operate the agreed services on specified routes and they can enter into cooperative marketing arrangements with the designated carriers of same party, other party and third country.