KABUL
\nHuman Rights Watch called for the release of two UN staffers and six NGO workers in Afghanistan following a string of Taliban detentions in recent weeks.
\nHRW said on Wednesday that six male staff working with the Women and Children Legal Research Foundation (WCLRF) had been \u201cforcibly disappeared\u201d from the NGO\u2019s Kabul office last month.
\nThe NGO has been involved in aid programs and advocacy on women\u2019s \u200cand children\u2019s rights, \u200cHRW said. In a separate incident, Human Rights Watch \u200calso called for the release of two Afghan staff members of the UN\u2019s Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA), who were detained by Taliban intelligence officials in the western city of Herat on Sunday.
\nThe Taliban government\u2019s chief spokesman, Zabihullah Mujahid, told that he was \u201ctrying to gather details\u201d about the recent detentions, but had \u201cnot received final clarity.\u201d The UN confirmed the detention of two of its staffers earlier this week. \u201cUNAMA has not been informed of the charges against them and \u200chas not been permitted to visit \u200cthem,\u201d Farhan Haq, deputy spokesman for the UN Secretary-General, said in a briefing on \u200cWednesday.
\nFereshta Abbasi, Afghanistan Researcher at Human Rights Watch, said in a statement \u200cthat the detentions of UNAMA staff threatened the UN\u2019s \u201cability to deliver lifesaving aid.\u201d<\/p>\n
As the UN\u2019s political mission in Afghanistan, UNAMA is involved in human rights monitoring and data gathering. Its reports have frequently been criticized by the Taliban government in \u200cthe past.
\nThe detentions became public only days before the Taliban celebrate the fifth anniversary of their return to power this Saturday. Afghanistan remains reliant on international assistance that has increasingly dried up amid broader foreign aid cuts over the last few years, but aid groups have regularly blamed the Taliban for obstructing their work and hampering donor commitment to Afghanistan. Human Rights Watch said Taliban security forces raided the WCLRF office in Kabul on June 21, confiscating employees\u2019 belongings and sealing the office, before questioning staff about their activities.
\nThe organization\u2019s leadership team of six male employees was detained one month later, on July 18, after Taliban authorities summoned them to the office, supposedly to collect their confiscated belongings, the rights group said. The men\u2019s families have received no information about their whereabouts, health or any possible charges against them, Human Rights Watch said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
KABUL Human Rights Watch called for the release of two UN staffers and six NGO workers in Afghanistan following a string of Taliban detentions in recent weeks. HRW said on Wednesday that six male staff working with the Women and Children Legal Research Foundation (WCLRF) had been \u201cforcibly disappeared\u201d from the NGO\u2019s Kabul office last […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":561811,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-561797","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-world"],"yoast_head":"\n