The UN Security Council has extended for 14 months the mandate of its UN team monitoring sanctions against the Taliban and entities and persons associated with it in Afghanistan. On Dec. 13, the 15 UNSC members voted this up unanimously. The U.S. led the negotiations on the text for Resolution 2763 (2024), calling for continued backing of the UN’s Analytical Support and Sanctions Monitoring Team. Sanctions of various kinds have been in place against Afghan persons and entities since 1988. The U.S. spokesman made a point of the Team’s work being “particularly salient given the Taliban’s increasing restrictions on the rights of women, girls and persons belonging to minority groups.”
China’s delegate took issue with this U.S. focus, though welcoming the unanimous adoption of the extension. China’s spokesman said, as reported by UN News, “that the 1988 sanctions regime was established to combat terrorism and is not an appropriate platform for addressing human rights issues.”
Russia’s delegate likewise said that sanctions have to do with terrorism, and, as reported by UN News, she stated that acting to shift the focus to human rights, is “at variance with the reasons why sanctions against the Taliban were introduced” in 1988.
