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Indonesia to offer more scholarships, vaccines to Afghanistan
The Indonesian foreign minister has pledged more scholarships and polio vaccines for Afghanistan during a meeting of special envoys in Doha convened by the UN chief.
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Female university students stop by a Taliban security post at a university in Kabul on Dec. 21, 2022. Afghanistan's Taliban rulers have banned university education for women nationwide, provoking condemnation from the United Nations over another assault on human rights. (AFP/Wakil Kohsar)
F
oreign Minister Retno LP Marsudi has reiterated Indonesia’s commitment to champion human rights and capacity building in Afghanistan with an announcement that Jakarta would be providing more scholarships for Afghan youths in addition to more medical assistance to the Taliban-led nation this year.
Retno made the announcement on Monday during the Meeting of Special Envoys on Afghanistan in Doha, Qatar, where she also met with other international delegates and held a virtual dialogue with several Afghan female public figures.
The meeting of special envoys, which was convened by United Nations secretary-general Antonio Guterres, aimed to refocus the international community’s engagement and future strategies in Afghanistan.
Delegates from at least a dozen UN countries, including Indonesia, China, Japan, Russia, the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom and the United States, as well as other members of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) and the European Union, attended Monday’s meeting in Doha.
Representatives of the Taliban administration were not invited to the meeting, which came after the Islamic fundamentalist group ordered a ban in early April on Afghan women working for the world body.
Later in April, the UN Security Council (UNSC) unanimously adopted a resolution to condemn the Taliban’s decision, calling for a “swift reverse of policies and practices restricting women and girls’ enjoyment of their human rights and fundamental freedoms”.
“In the meeting, I emphasized that the rights of Afghan women must be honored, including the right to education and professional development,” Retno said in a statement released on Tuesday.
