Afghanistan, Occupied Palestinian Territory, Ukraine & other topics - Daily Press Briefing

Hello, good afternoon, everyone. I'm really sorry for the delay. I'm going to start today with our guest because she's been waiting for us patiently. So thank you so much, Susan Ferguson. She is the UN Women's Special Representative in Afghanistan and she's joining us virtually to brief on the situation of women and girls in the country after five years from the Taliban takeover. Susan, please go ahead. Thank you so much again.

Thank you very much, Daniela, and good afternoon, everyone there. Five years ago tomorrow, the Taliban seized control of Afghanistan for the second time. What's unfolded since then has no parallel in the modern world. Year by year, the de facto authorities have systematically dismantled the rights of women and girls, issuing more than 100 decrees that have stripped away their rights and institutionalized discrimination against them. Afghanistan is the only country in the world where women and girls face such far-reaching restrictions on their education, work, movement, public participation, and legal equality. In the past year alone, new decrees and edicts have further restricted women's and girls' access to justice and formally removed equality between women and men before the law. For example, under decree number 12, a husband is only criminally liable for violence within marriage if he causes severe and visible physical injuries, and his wife must prove it in court. with her male guardian, who may be the very person who harmed her. Under decree number 18, men retain the right to divorce, but a woman either needs her husband's permission or has to go through a lengthy legal process. The decree also implicitly permits child marriage, further eroding the rights and protection of women and girls. Enforcement of these decrees and edicts has intensified with thousands of officials now patrolling the streets with broad powers of detention and surveillance. The gates of high schools remain locked to girls. The halls of universities remain open to men only. And a growing shortage of women health workers, a consequence of the education bans, is making it harder for women to receive health care, particularly in communities where custom prevents women from being treated by male doctors. We're seeing just how profoundly these restrictions are reshaping women's everyday lives. More than half of the 3,200 women we surveyed say they now leave their homes only once or twice a month. Nearly three quarters say they feel unsafe leaving home without a male guardian or mahram. And more than half say they avoid public spaces such as markets and health facilities altogether. Women described a constant need to be aware of their dress, speech and movements to avoid sanction, scrutiny or judgment. This systematic loss of rights, freedoms and opportunities has triggered a mental health crisis among women and girls. Seven in 10 women we surveyed described their mental health as bad or very bad. These figures tell us what five years of systematic and growing exclusion looks like in the life of an Afghan woman. In the face of all these extraordinary restrictions, I hear the message over and over from the Afghan women I meet, see us, don't leave us, stand with us and continue to support us. Yet at precisely the moment when Afghan women need that support the most, it's being pulled away. Across Afghanistan, international aid cuts are forcing women's organizations to cut services, to lay off staff, and in some cases, consider closing their doors altogether. In fact, more than half of the 74 women's organizations UN Women surveyed in April this year are likely to suspend work or close in the next year due to these aid cuts. Women's organizations are one of the last remaining lifelines for Afghan women and girls, delivering life-saving services, including protection from violence, healthcare, mental health and psychosocial support, livelihoods and humanitarian assistance. Yet nearly three quarters of these organizations experienced funding cuts in 2025. Two thirds reported they had six months or less of operational funding remaining. More than half of these organizations said they had scaled back gender-based violence support, and two out of three said they had already scaled back education and income support. And these pressures extend beyond women's organizations. In June, a survey of more than 100 NGOs and UN entities found that more than half had been forced to let Afghan women staff go because of funding cuts. It just doesn't make sense. Because at the same time that funding is disappearing, the needs of Afghan women and girls are growing. Every women's organization we surveyed in April reported an increase in women's economic vulnerability and poverty. And more than eight in 10 reported an increase in early and forced marriage. Afghanistan also remains prone to natural disasters and climate shocks, which can push already vulnerable families even further into crisis. This year, more than 10.7 million Afghan women and girls need humanitarian assistance, and 4.9 million women and children are expected to need treatment for malnutrition. So we're facing a stark contradiction. Despite operating in the world's most severe women's rights crisis, despite being one of the last remaining lifelines for many vulnerable women and girls, and despite needs rising as poverty deepens and restrictions on women intensify, the organizations that can still reach and support Afghan women are being asked to do more and more with less and less. Five years into this crisis, this is the moment to deepen our commitment to Afghan women, not to retreat from it. So I urge all governments and other international donors to continue investing in Afghan women and girls, to increase, not cut, their foreign aid, because to do anything less is to walk away from Afghan women and girls. It would be another step towards normalization. There's nothing normal about excluding half a country's population from public life. There was nothing normal about it five years ago, and there's nothing normal about it today, and we must never allow it to become normal. Thank you very much.

Thank you so much, Susan. Edie, please go ahead.

Thank you very much, Ms. Ferguson, on behalf of the United Nations Correspondents Association for doing this briefing. My name is Edith Lederer from the Associated Press. A couple of follow-up questions. first, can you give us the size of the UN humanitarian appeal and the percentage of funding and what UN Women is asking for to help fund these women's organizations and how much you've received? And secondly, You talked about nothing being normal about this situation and normalization. The Taliban has made absolutely no indication that it plans to change the policies it's adopted towards women. How do you see the future unfolding and what do you believe could change their policy in a positive direction for women? Thank you.

Thank you very much for that question, all those questions. So I think that if we look forward at the moment, given what I've just said about the situation for women and girls and the increasing restrictions on them, I think that if we think about the next five years, I think things look pretty grim for women and girls in Afghanistan. So there doesn't seem to be relief in sight at this moment. I think it's really important for the international community to be aware of this and to be looking at this in terms of any kind of dialogue with the Taliban or negotiations. We need to always make sure that women and girls needs are at the center of that because it's a good measure of how the de facto authorities are progressing in Afghanistan is how they deal with women and girls. So we really need to work together and that's everyone, you know, Afghan women in the diaspora, women in the country, but also the international community are so important along with NGOs who are really on the ground here providing so many of the services. On the humanitarian statistics, we need 1.7 billion in total. At the moment, we have a quarter of that funded. Thank you.

And that's the overall humanitarian appeal.

Yes.

And so UN Women has approximately a quarter of what it needs also.

Yes, yes, that's an overall figure. All of us are in need of that quarter.

Thank you. Thank.

Thank you very much.

Thank you. And thank you, Ms. Ferguson. It's Pamela Falk from U.S. News and World Report. You have said that half of Afghan women only leave their homes once or twice a month, or that's the report from UN Women, and only 7% are employed. So Clearly, the sanctions and the pressure has not changed that. You've made that point yourself. What could change? Do you think there's anything that could influence the Taliban to change these policies? They appear to be more entrenched, and your report says women are more isolated than ever. Thank you.

Yes, thank you. I mean, I think that's, A very difficult question. I think if we knew the answer to that and it was an easy answer, I think everyone would have already been doing it already. But I do think that member states have got a lot of influence with the de facto authorities. I think they want their country to progress and to achieve economic development. So I think in any discussions with the de facto authorities, it may happen informally even, I think it's really important that these issues for women and girls are raised within those discussions of any kinds of investments or that sort of thing. I mean, the Security Council made decisions or recommendations in 2023 about you know, that women and girls and their return, for example, to schools should be part of any kind of negotiations that occur with the DFA. And I think that's very important.

Thank you. Thanks, Susan. Do we have any further questions in the room? I don't believe we have any questions virtually. Let me just double check here. Hi, can please go ahead.

Thank you so much. This is Afrin Kosaifi with Arab News Daily. Thank you, Ms. Ferguson, for this briefing. Two quick questions. When you say the international community, do you have any specific country or countries in mind that should maybe more than others for different kind of reasons step up, step forward to help in this situation? Is there any country that the Taliban listens to, do you think? Who should be the first to hear your appeal today and the stories you told us? And second, how would you describe the effect of the experience that Afghan women are going through, which is a very extreme experience? How do you see it having consequences and repercussions for the rest of the world? Meaning, why should the rest of the world care about that situation? Thank you.

Thank you very much, Ephraim. So I think on the first question, I think that there are, you know, I think Afghanistan's part of a region, so I think regional countries are very important. And, you know, we really are very pleased to be able to rely on some of the countries, you know, who, like, for example, you know, Qatar and UAE and Saudi and these kinds of countries are very important, I think. And so, but I really think every country has still an interest in Afghanistan and I think that's up to member states also who would know which ones have got the most influence there. But definitely regional countries are incredibly important. And so I think on the other question, why should we care? I think because it sends a message that if we allow this to go on in Afghanistan, it can go on anywhere in the world. So I think it's really important that we do take a stand on women's issues in Afghanistan, exactly as I said, because if we normalize it, it shows that this can be normal in Afghanistan, it can be normal in other countries around the world as well. And I think as a woman myself, a feeling of sisterhood exists. And I think, you know, it's important women around the world see these things and think they're incredibly unjust. So, yeah.

Thanks, Edie. Please.

Yeah, just two quick follow-up questions. In the survey that you did with these 3,300 women, Did you hear any examples of women committing suicide, for example, because the situation was so dire? And is the war between Afghanistan and Pakistan, mainly in the border area, having any serious impact on women? Thank you.

Thank you. I couldn't say from the results that we had a response around suicide of women, but we do know that women's mental health is really being badly affected. And we do know that suicide is an issue. So, and that's one reason why we're so concerned about the mental health issues. They are severe. So, and I've seen that myself in talking to women in the country. You can see that sort of sadness and trauma on their faces when they're talking about having to give up education, for example. That's one of the most raw kind of triggers for women to feel very sad because their hopes for the future are crushed. So it's clear that the severity is there. So on your other question about the fighting, It's definitely having an impact on women and girls. I mean, we know in conflict in general, that's true. Women and girls experience it very severely. But we do know from our humanitarian work in these regions that a number of women that we're helping already had been displaced because of the earthquake in the same area. So a number of these women already have insecure housing. They might be in tents and they don't have enough food and they are reliant on humanitarian assistance. So it's certainly worsened the situation for those women in these areas.

Please go ahead.

Thank you. My name is Shang from Xinhua News Agency. When you talked about the regional countries, you didn't mention Iran. How do you see Iran's role in the overall situation in Afghanistan or with regard to women and girls in particular? Thank you.

Well, Iran, you know, there's still returnees coming back from Iran. And over the last couple of years, there's been nearly 6 million people who've come back from both Pakistan and Iran. So that remains an ongoing crisis that the country is dealing with. And about, I believe about a quarter of those coming back from Iran are women and girls. The majority returning at the moment are young single men. So, but we do a lot of work with the women who have returned already and who are trying to reestablish themselves in a country that they may no longer remember, you know, because they've lived in Iran for so long. So we do a lot of work in helping them with getting livelihoods established and finding support and housing, for example. So that's our main focus with the situation along the border between Iran and Afghanistan.

Thanks, Ms. Ferguson. Any Other questions? I think we covered all the questions. Please go ahead.

Yes, I have one more.

Okay. We have one more here in the room. Okay, go ahead online and after we come back to the room, please. Yes, do you have a question online?

Could we build the fashion industry for the women in Afghanistan? If we supply sewing machines, they could have an industry in fashion working from their homes, which a lot of the women from Bangladesh are doing as of now. And it could be new magic for the country and for the women, and the fashion industry is big business. Thank you. We could get the sewing machines. We could raise the money to get the sewing machines.

Thank you for that suggestion. Indeed, these are the kinds of things that are still, that women are still able to do from home is run smaller businesses or provide materials or services you know, through such an industry as that. So, and in fact, there is a lot of support for women's livelihoods. And this is one of the areas that we are still able to often work in and create support for women so that they can sustain themselves. So this kind of thing that you're suggesting is is very important. And there is a lot of activity already from the UN and from partners in the country to build women's livelihoods and their skills and their ability to get loans to set up small businesses like that. And also larger businesses. There are women run, women owned businesses operating in Afghanistan. And it's a very important part of the work that the UN Trust to support as well.

Thanks. At the back of the room, please.

Thanks, Ms. Ferguson. I'm Zina from AP360. I have two questions. Do you yourself as a woman, do you feel guilty that you didn't find any solution for the women as you went there looking for any right to bring them back or to find any solution? The second one, if no, do you have any message for your own government? as part of Western countries who went there to bring democracy, but they left them behind with no rights left there in Afghanistan.

Sorry, I missed that. You cut off in that last question. Do you mind repeating that last one for me?

If you felt hopeless with no effort there, do you have any message for your own government as part of the Western countries who went there to force democracy, but they left all the women there behind with no rights?

So on the first one, I think everyone feels It's almost like you would call it survivor guilt. Everyone feels a sense of it. Every person, I think, operating in Afghanistan with the UN has a feeling of deep responsibility towards the women and girls in the country. And so, yes, we do feel, I'm not sure it's guilty, but we do definitely feel for what is happening for the women and girls there in the country. But at the same time, we also see this incredible resilience of the women and girls there that is very humbling to me and an amazing kind of strength that remains. You know, these, so many of these women and girls really want to contribute to Afghanistan. They want to contribute to the development of the country and they want Afghanistan to progress and be a part of that. So I think that is also very difficult to see where, you know, you can see this untapped resource who want to move the country forward. So the whole country loses out by women's exclusion. And that is a difficult feeling to sit with in the country. On the other messages, I think for us, our main aim is continuing to look now forward, you know, what's happening now, what can we do in the future, how can we support the women and girls of Afghanistan? So, and this is why I do some of these briefings so that people can hear what the situation is like and member states can take action and support the women and girls of Afghanistan.

Thanks. We have another question online. Iftikhar, please.

Thank you, Ms. Ferguson, for this briefing. So far, all the questions on Afghanistan have been asked, but I would like to ask you whether you are in touch with the senior leadership. Have you taken up these critical women issues with the senior leadership and what is their response?

So we in the UN do take up these issues with senior leadership on a regular basis. And, you know, the de facto authorities are a mixed group, you know? It's not, there's differences in how different people see this issue. And, you know, everyone has families, everyone has, you know, girls and women in their families and they see how they're being treated. So there are different views across the de facto authorities. And that gives me hope because it means that we, you know, there are people who can see there is a different way of operating. And I think it's an important thing for us to do to continue to raise the needs and issues and to continue to try and keep the channels open so they can influence in their own way.

Thank you. Thank you so much, Ms. Ferguson, Susan Ferguson, the UN Special Representative in Afghanistan for joining us today. I know it is very late where you are right now, so thank you so much for making the time to joining us here with such an important topic. Thank you. Thank you so much.

Thank you so much for having me. It's so important that people in the world continue to have Afghanistan in their minds. So thank you very much for the opportunity.

Thanks. Okay, and now we're going to start the briefing. Okay, and I'm also going to do just a follow-up note on Afghanistan. The UN Children's Fund today said that more than 2.6 million girls in the country have been denied a secondary education in the five years since the de facto authorities took power. UNICEF warns that girls who are out of school face heightened protection risks, including child labor, abuse, early marriage, and gender-based violence. Despite the restrictions, UNICEF continues to support learning in Afghanistan. And turning now to the occupied Palestinian territory, I will start with the situation in the West Bank. Our humanitarian partners warned that aid work is being delayed and limited by a network of over 900 physical obstacles, including checkpoints, gates, roadblocks, and other restrictions. This hinders humanitarian access and leave people in need undeserved. Today, aid and municipal workers have been struggling to secure access to three Palestinian families in a village near Nablus. These families have been trapped there since Tuesday, following the establishment of a settlement outpost next to their homes and the tightening of access restrictions in the area. Alongside municipal workers, our partners have been trying to deliver food, water, milk formula, medicines, and hygiene items to those trapped inside, but such attempts have been unsuccessful so far. Our colleagues warned that efforts to protect Palestinians have been ineffective, with settlers reportedly reinstalling a tent that Israeli forces had dismantled yesterday. Meanwhile, in the northern West Bank, where the humanitarian situation remains particularly severe, child protection partners have provided vital assistance, including psychosocial support, case management, and services children with disabilities to nearly 30,000 children and 15,000 adults since the start of this year. Turning to Gaza, OCHA says that humanitarians continue to provide vital aid to people in Gaza despite persistent insecurity and restrictions. Last week, we and our partners mobilized rapid support for people who had lost their shelters or were displaced again due to attacks, domestic fires, and other incidents. In more than a dozen reported incidents, people were displaced and lost their belongings due to attacks, impacting nearly 290 households. Two households were affected by domestic fires, which are often linked to unsafe cooking in shelters in the absence of proper energy sources. Another five households were affected by the placement of new yellow cement blocks, which often triggers displacement in Gaza by signaling this expansion of areas where access is restricted. Most of the last year's appeals for help, uh, come, uh, come from northern Gaza and Deir al-Bala, with the UN and our partners tailoring the response to meet families' specific needs. Also last week, our partners report that more than 300,000 children continue to participate in summer learning programs they support. To address the impact of extreme heat in Gaza, our education colleagues installed shade structures in 10 temporary learning spaces. And from Ukraine, our colleagues at the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs tells us that they continue to deliver humanitarian assistance to frontline areas that are hard to reach at a time when the security situation is worsening across the country, driving needs even higher. Yesterday and today, OCHA, with support from partners leading on logistics, facilitated two humanitarian convoys to frontline communities in the Kherson and Kharkiv regions, delivering hygiene supplies, first aid kits, and foods. And now turning to Cameroon, Tom Fletcher, the Emergency Relief Coordinator, has allocated $1 million from the UN Center Emergency Response Fund to support the cholera response in the country's far north region. Our humanitarian colleagues at the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs tells us that the allocation targets 230,000 people with a focus on children, as well as refugees and communities at high risk near borders. The funds will help us and our humanitarian partners to provide support in cholera prevention, treatment, and safe water and sanitation. Locia said that as of 12th of August, more than 1,250,000 cases and 31 deaths have had been reported across nine health districts. The outbreak, which began in late June, continues to expand and has already exceeded the scale of recent cholera outbreaks recorded in 2019, 2022, and 2024. The outbreak is affecting remote and insecure areas that become harder to reach during the rainy season, increasing delays and access to treatment. Conditions in Minawo refugee camp, which hosts more than 81,000 refugees, and where 80 cases have already been recorded, further increase the risk of transmission. The 2026 Cameroon Humanitarian Needs and Response Plan, which calls for $319 million, is just over a quarter funded. And in South Sudan, where the UN Refugee Agency and the World Food Program warned today that without urgent funding, 240,000 refugees will receive the final food and nutrition assistance in September. They are the last remaining refugees of the 650,000 who have been receiving food support across the country. The agencies warn that the consequences of an interruption in critical aid would be immediate and long-lasting, including heightened risks of malnutrition and of exploitation and abuse of women and children. UNHCR is particularly concerned about the risks of yet more cross-border movement as people search for food and assistance. This comes as more than 7.8 million people, that's over half the population, face high levels of acute food insecurity, and 2.2 million children are acutely malnourished. WFP faces an immediate $37 million gap for its refugee response and an overall funding shortage of $258 million for the remainder of 2026. That's lots of money. Both agencies are appealing for immediate, flexible funding to prevent a suspension of lifesaving assistance. And from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs says that nearly three months into the Ebola outbreak, the Bundibugyo strain continues to spread with Baswele now becoming the sixth affected province. As of 12th of August, over 4,660 confirmed cases and 2,184 deaths have been reported by the national authorities with a case fatality rate of nearly 47%. As the outbreak expands, food assistance is also being scaled up to support patients and communities affected by Ebola. Starting tomorrow, the World Food Programme will extend its hot meal programme to additional Ebola treatment centres in Ituri and other provinces. Since the end of May, our colleagues at WFP have provided more than 260,000 hot meals at treatment and isolation centers across the provinces of Ituri, North Kivu and South Kivu. This assistance is particularly important as 2.6 million people are facing acute food insecurity across Ebola affected areas in Eastern DRC at crisis level or worse, which means that families experience high acute malnutrition. More than half of these families are in the province of the epicenter of the outbreak. However, the level of response is far outspaced by the scale of needs. OCHA tells us that the food security sector is only 25% funded, so urgent additional funding is needed to ensure life-saving food aid reaches those who need the most. And just another, one last note also on the DRC Congo. Turning in from, but this one is from our peacekeeper, peacekeeper, peacekeepers colleagues. They tell us that the UN mission in the country has been conducting, conducting daily patrols across agricultural areas in the, territory during the harvest season to protect farmers from the potential threat of armed groups. These patrols have been conducted in coordination of Congolese armed forces. Within this context, MONUSCO established a mobile operation base at Basa to ensure freedom of movement along national route 27. Our colleagues know that this is particularly important to allow women to safely access their farms and transport their harvest. This is for me, from me now. Just organizing my papers and I will take the questions, Edie, please.

Thank you, Daniela. Is there any update on the UN's involvement in the earthquake relief operation in Colombia.

The last update I had was from yesterday. I know that our colleagues continue to work on the response. There was an assessment that was being going on and we soon should have more information on that. We should have more updates on that for next week.

Is the United Nations going to do any kind of an appeal for reconstruction aid for Colombia?

I would say that probably next week we should have more information on that as well. But I'm not going to promise anything. Any further questions? Or we are ready for the weekend? I am, certainly. That's it. Thank you so much, everyone. Have a great weekend. Thank you. Me.