ANKARA, Turkey (AP) \u2014 Afghanistan\u2019s Taliban authorities have \u201cforcibly disappeared\u201d six staff members of a local organization working on women\u2019s and children\u2019s rights, a U.S.-based advocacy group said, following a separate U.N. report that two Afghan employees of its mission in the country were detained.<\/p>\n
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ANKARA, Turkey (AP) \u2014 Afghanistan\u2019s Taliban authorities have \u201cforcibly disappeared\u201d six staff members of a local organization working on women\u2019s and children\u2019s rights, a U.S.-based advocacy group said, following a separate U.N. report that two Afghan employees of its mission in the country were detained.<\/p>\n
ANKARA, Turkey (AP) \u2014 Afghanistan\u2019s Taliban authorities have \u201cforcibly disappeared\u201d six staff members of a local organization working on women\u2019s and children\u2019s rights, a U.S.-based advocacy group said, following a separate U.N. report that two Afghan employees of its mission in the country were detained.<\/p>\n
The reported detentions come as Afghanistan\u2019s Taliban rulers prepare to mark the fifth anniversary of their return to power on Saturday.<\/p>\n
The six men \u2014 employees of the Women and Children Legal Research Foundation \u2014 were detained on July 18 after they were told to come to their office to retrieve confiscated laptops and phones, Human Rights Watch said in a statement released late Wednesday. Their families were given no information about their whereabouts, their condition or possible charges.<\/p>\n
Human Rights Watch called on the Taliban to allow family and lawyers to visit the detained and for them to be \u201cimmediately released unless they have been charged with a recognizable offense.\u201d<\/p>\n
The statement came after the U.N. said two Afghan members of its political mission were detained on Sunday in the western city of Herat by the Taliban\u2019s General Directorate of Intelligence. The U.N. mission has not been informed of the charges against the two men or been able to visit them, U.N. deputy spokesman Farhan Haq told reporters.<\/p>\n
The mission has called on the Taliban \u201cto ensure compliance with the privileges and immunities of the United Nations and its officials,\u201d Haq said.<\/p>\n
There was no immediate comment on the two incidents from the Taliban, which seized power on Aug. 15, 2021, as U.S. and NATO forces withdrew from the country after two decades of war.<\/p>\n
Shortly after taking power, it barred girls from secondary schools and later extended the restrictions to higher education, employment and other sectors, effectively excluding women and girls from public life.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Taliban seems to consider any effort to assist women and girls a threat to their abusive rule,\u201d said Macarena S\u00e1ez, women\u2019s rights director at Human Rights Watch. \u201cThey should immediately provide information on the six staff members\u2019 whereabouts and release them if held unlawfully.\u201d<\/p>\n
Human Rights Watch said the detention of the six employees came a month after the security forces searched and sealed their office in Kabul and interrogated staff members about their work.<\/p>\n
The U.N. mission in Afghanistan, UNAMA, said Thursday it had no information on the reported six detentions or whether the two incidents were connected.<\/p>\n