KABUL: The UN special rapporteur on the human rights situation in Afghanistan has been barred from entering the country, a diplomatic source told AFP on Tuesday.
“Richard Bennett was informed of the decision that he would not be welcome to return to Afghanistan several months ago,” a diplomatic source confirmed to AFP after local media reported the ban, citing a Taliban government spokesman.
Bennett marked two years in the role on May 1.
Since returning to power in August 2021, Taliban authorities have enforced rules based on a strict interpretation of Islamic law.
Women have borne the brunt of restrictions the United Nations has labelled “gender apartheid” which have pushed them from public life.
They have been barred from secondary and higher education, as well as blocked from working in many jobs or entering public parks, gyms and traveling without a male relative.
The Taliban government remains unrecognized by any other state, with its restrictions on women a key sticking point.
Taliban authorities have systematically dismissed criticism of their policies from the UN and the international community.
However, when the ban was apparently issued months ago, the Taliban government stressed that their issue was not with human rights monitoring and reporting, but with Bennett personally, according to diplomatic sources.
Earlier Tuesday, Afghanistan’s Tolo News quoted chief Taliban government spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid as saying that Bennett had been banned “because he was appointed to Afghanistan to spread propaganda and he is not someone whose words we can trust.”
“He took small issues and exaggerated them for propaganda,” he said.
In recent months, Bennett has issued strong statements on women’s rights in Afghanistan at moments when the country was in the international spotlight.
Last week, as the Taliban authorities celebrated the third anniversary of their takeover of Afghanistan, Bennett joined 29 other UN experts in a statement urging the international community to “not normalize the de facto authorities or their appalling human rights violations,” he said on X.
In late June, Bennett condemned the decision to exclude rights issues from the agenda and Afghan women and civil society representatives from the table at UN-hosted talks in Qatar — a condition of Taliban representatives’ attendance at the meetings with the international community.
“The cost is too high,” he wrote in a New York Times opinion piece.
In New York, Stephane Dujarric, a spokesman for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, did not confirm or deny the ban Tuesday but said: “Special rapporteurs play a very critical part in the global human rights architecture. We encourage full cooperation with them.”
Special rapporteurs like Bennett are independent experts within the Special Procedures body of the Geneva-based UN Human Rights Council.
The UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) maintains a human rights monitoring and reporting function in the country.
UN rights expert barred from Afghanistan: diplomatic source
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UN rights expert barred from Afghanistan: diplomatic source
Blacklisted naphtha tanker from Russia enters Venezuelan waters while another diverts, ship data shows
- Under U.S. sanctions related to Russia, the ship has a different sanctions profile than Skipper, the tanker that was seized by the U.S. on December 10
HOUSTON: A tanker subject to U.S. sanctions carrying some 300,000 barrels of naphtha from Russia entered Venezuelan waters late on Thursday, while another began redirecting course in the Atlantic Ocean, ship tracking data showed, a reflection of diverging last-minute decisions by ship owners after President Donald Trump ordered a "blockade" of oil tankers under sanctions bound for the OPEC country earlier this week.
The move ramped up pressure on Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro by targeting the country's main source of income and followed the seizure by the U.S. of an oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela earlier in December.
Vessels that were not subject to sanctions began setting sail on Wednesday from Venezuelan waters after a week's pause, helping drain the country's mounting crude stocks.
Gambia-flagged medium tanker Hyperion docked on Friday at Amuay Bay on Venezuela's western coast, according to LSEG ship tracking data. It loaded near Murmansk in Russia in late November.
Under U.S. sanctions related to Russia, the ship has a different sanctions profile than Skipper, the tanker that was seized by the U.S. on December 10.
The U.S. can only seize vessels outside of its jurisdiction, or vessels that aren't heading to or from the country, if Washington has placed them under sanctions for links to groups it designates as terrorist, said David Tannenbaum, a director at consulting firm Blackstone Compliance Services that specializes in sanctions and anti-money laundering compliance.
Skipper, formerly called the Adisa, was under sanctions for what the U.S. says was involvement in Iranian oil trading that generated revenue for Iranian groups it has designated as foreign terrorist organizations.
With the Hyperion, though, sanctions were imposed to reduce Russian revenues from energy because of its war with Ukraine.
"The Hyperion doesn't have known ties to terrorism, and therefore unless they can prove it's subject to the jurisdiction of the U.S., Washington can't grab it extraterritorially," said Tannenbaum, who previously worked with the U.S. Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control that administers and enforces economic and trade sanctions.
REDIRECTS AND U-TURNS
The Angola-flagged Agate, another medium tanker under sanctions that loaded in Russia and had been sailing toward the Caribbean, was seen redirecting on Friday, according to LSEG ship tracking. The vessel was pointing towards Africa, but had not yet signaled a new destination.
Oman-flagged Garnet, also under sanctions and loaded in Russia, continued on its track, signaling the Caribbean as its destination on Friday.
Benin-flagged tanker Boltaris, under sanctions and carrying some 300,000 barrels of Russian naphtha bound for Venezuela, made a U-turn earlier this month and was heading for Europe without having discharged, according to LSEG vessel monitoring data.
Two very large crude carriers not subject to sanctions set sail for China on Thursday from Venezuela, according to sources familiar with Venezuela's oil export operations, marking only the second and third tankers unrelated to Chevron to depart the country since the U.S. seized Skipper.
The American oil major, which has continued to ship Venezuelan crude under a U.S. authorization, exported a crude cargo on Thursday bound for the U.S., LSEG data showed.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Friday said the U.S. was not concerned about the four vessels that sailed from Venezuela on Thursday, as those were not ships under sanctions.
"Sanctioned boats, we have the capabilities necessary to enforce our laws. We'll have a judicial order, we'll execute on those orders and there's nothing that will impede us from being able to do that," Rubio said.
Venezuela's government called Trump's blockade a "grotesque threat" in a statement on Tuesday, saying it violates international law, free commerce and the right of free navigation.
