UN Expert Blasts Taliban's Child‑Rights Record Five Years On

It’s been half a decade since the Taliban re‑asserted control over Afghanistan, and the country’s youngest citizens are feeling the sting more than ever. In a stark new report, United Nations Special Rapporteur on the human‑rights situation in Afghanistan, Richard Bennett, laid out how the regime’s draconian rules are reshaping daily life for kids and teens.

“Afghanistan’s children are growing up in an environment where discrimination, especially against girls and women, is being normalised,” Bennett told the UN in Geneva. He didn’t mince words – the denial of schooling beyond the sixth grade for girls, he said, is not just a policy hiccup; it’s a systematic effort to erase half the nation’s potential.

Even though security has modestly improved since the 2021 takeover, the gains are dwarfed by a wave of other harms. Children are increasingly exposed to gender‑based violence, forced marriages, child labour, and an ideological indoctrination that leaves little room for free thought or personal expression.

“These policies are not only violating children’s rights today – they are undermining their ability to determine their own futures,” the UN expert warned. For many girls, the doors that once led to secondary school are now firmly shut, and the mental‑health fallout is already evident.

Beyond education, the report flagged a worrying rise in child recruitment for armed groups and a crackdown on any form of dissent. Young Afghans who dare to speak out or simply wish to play a sport not sanctioned by the regime risk harassment, detention, or worse.

In a handful of rural districts, even the modest hope of a community centre offering basic literacy lessons has been replaced by an ever‑expanding list of prohibitions. Parents, caught between fear and desperation, often send their children to work in informal jobs just to survive.

Bennett called on the Taliban to reverse these discriminatory policies, urging an immediate lift on the ban on girls’ secondary education and a full‑scale protection of children’s rights under international law.

“Afghan children deserve a future where they can learn, grow and contribute,” he concluded, reminding the world that neglecting this generation today plants the seeds of long‑term instability tomorrow.