Joint statement by 10 Women Foreign Ministers on the women and girls rights in Afghanistan and Iran

18. 2. 2023

Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs

On the margins of the 59th Munich Security Conference, Minister for Foreign and European Affairs Tanja Fajon, as a member of the Informal Group of Women Foreign Ministers, attended a meeting hosted by German and Canada Foreign Ministers. At the meeting, 10 ministers adopted and signed a joint statement on women and girls rights in Afghanistan and Iran.

10 zunanjih ministric in podpisnic skupne izjave — 10 Women Foreign Ministers that signed a statement | Author Ministrstvo za zunanje in evropske zadeve

Full statement:

We strongly condemn the Taliban's pusch to exclude women from all public life: women are kept from strolling in parks, are not seen on TV screens anymore, are deprived from their right to attend schools and universities, and are now also kept from working in humanitarian assistance.

By excluding half of Afganistan's population from society, the Taliban are commiting gravest violations of human rights. And the Taliban are jeopardizing the future of the whole country.

We are united in our call to lift these restrictions on women, particularly when it comes to their essential role in the delivery of humanitarian assistance. This will restore the basis to deliver the help that the women, children and men of Afghanistan so urgently need.

We stand by the side of the brave women and men of Iran in there daily fight for their rights and their freedom. Their struggle shows that only where women are safe everybody is safe. Not only in Iran, not only in Afganisthan, but all over the world.

The statements was signed by the Foreign Ministers of Slovenia, Germany, Canada, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Belgium, Andorra, Albania, Mongolia and Libya.