Position paper for Afghanistan

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Committee:	GA Third
Topic:	Universal realization of the right of peoples to self-determination
Paper text:
Afghanistan’s government-in-exile affirms that the right of peoples to self-determination, as enshrined in the UN Charter and the International Covenants, protects a population’s free choice of political status and pursuit of economic, social, and cultural development. Properly understood, it requires representative institutions, the rule of law, and participation without discrimination. It does not legitimate authority seized by force or the exclusion of half the population from public life. Afghans repeatedly expressed their will for a democratic, rights-respecting state under the 2004 Constitution, which guaranteed universal suffrage and protections for women and minorities. The brutal August 2021 takeover extinguished internal self-determination: women and girls are denied education and work, independent media and civil society are constrained, and governance lacks popular consent. Universal realization of self- determination requires restoring the Afghan people’s voice through inclusive, credible processes, not coercion. We therefore urge Member States to support a UN-facilitated political path toward time- bound, internationally monitored elections; tie any engagement to concrete human rights benchmarks including reopening girls’ secondary and higher education, removing restrictions on movement and employment, and releasing political detainees; protect humanitarian action and Afghan civil society from interference; and sustain non-recognition of coercive rule while employing targeted measures against grave violators. An inclusive national dialogue, bringing women leaders, ulema, minorities, youth, and the diaspora into a constitutional process, should chart reforms that secure participation, ensure decentralization where appropriate, and guarantee fundamental freedoms. Afghanistan seeks a future chosen by Afghans themselves: through ballots, institutions, and rights that bind rulers to the ruled.

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Committee:	GA Third
Topic:	Improvement of the situation of women and girls in rural areas
Paper text:
The Government of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan reaffirms that the empowerment of women and girls, particularly in rural areas, is essential for achieving national stability, human rights, and sustainable development. Rural women form the backbone of Afghan society, contributing to agriculture, family livelihoods, and community life. Yet, they remain among the most marginalized due to decades of conflict, poverty, and now systemic discrimination under Taliban rule. Since August 2021, the situation for Afghan women and girls has deteriorated sharply. In rural provinces, schools for girls remain closed, female healthcare workers are restricted, and humanitarian aid often fails to reach those most in need. These policies violate Afghanistan’s constitutional guarantees of equality, international human rights law, and the Sustainable Development Goals, particularly SDG 5 on gender equality and SDG 4 on quality education. The Delegation of Afghanistan calls upon the United Nations to expand and prioritize programs that directly support women and girls in Afghanistan’s rural areas. Specifically, we urge UNICEF and UNESCO to implement learning- through-play and early reading initiatives that can operate in community spaces or mobile classrooms, ensuring access to education even in restrictive environments. The UNDP and FAO should strengthen female-led agricultural cooperatives, providing training, microloans, and digital literacy resources to rural women entrepreneurs. Additionally, we support UN Women’s coordination of mobile healthcare services and mentorship programs connecting educated Afghan women living abroad with girls in remote communities. Empowering rural Afghan women is not a matter of cultural debate but a universal moral and developmental necessity. Sustainable peace and national self- determination cannot exist while half of Afghanistan’s population is silenced and excluded.

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Committee:	GA Plenary
Topic:	Our ocean, our future, our responsibility
Paper text:
Afghanistan acknowledges that every nation has a responsibility towards solving the issues that plague the ocean. However it also has a need to protect UNCLOS Part X. Article 125(1). This proclaims that landlocked countries shall have “the right of access to and from the sea” including “freedom of the high seas and the common heritage of mankind” and as such any future policy must not strip land locked nations such as Afghanistan of this right. Afghanistan’s interest is to keep oceans open and healthy: open for transit and trade, and healthy enough to secure benefits like stable climate patterns. Climate Diplomacy points out in April 2025 that “Afghanistan is among the ten countries that have historically received inadequate climate funding, alongside Chad, South Sudan, Somalia, Niger, Mali, Yemen, Ethiopia, Uganda and Iraq.” This results in major economic harm that exceeds three $3 billion during severe droughts, in a nation like Afghanistan this leaves the people at extreme risk of harm. We acknowledge that even landlocked nations contribute to the plague of pollution in the ocean via rivers and streams. As such we call on the international community to increase technical and financial support to landlocked states in tackling waste and river pollution. Besides this we also call upon our non land locked neighbors to step up attempts to prevent and clean up their ocean territory via new methods such as floating barriers, automated drones, and manual clean up efforts. However none of this is possible without support from the international community, as one of the ten nations to receive inadequate funding we see a need for renewed efforts of the international community to come together and help fund these programs. All of this however must be done while keeping in mind the need for economic growth via the ocean, and requests that the UN does not propose resolutions that would restrict Afghanistan's right to the ocean or its pathways as outlined in UNCLOS.

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Committee:	GA Plenary
Topic:	Strengthening of the coordination of emergency humanitarian assistance of the United Nations
Paper text:
Humanitarian aid from the United Nations was a vital resource in preparing the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan for a democratic governance, yet it has been repeatedly impeded by logistical and transportary issues. These issues resulted in lives being lost as supplies needed to be coordinated in areas that were hard to navigate as a result of local conflict and underdeveloped transportation lines. Often, the areas that need the most funding to overhaul transportation access are the same areas and nations which need humanitarian aid in the first place showing the necessity of this work. During one humanitarian aid campaign in the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, nearly 20% of those receiving aid were in areas considered to be hard to reach (HTR) as reported by the OCHA. HTR locations could be drastically reduced with further development into transportation options by allowing for alternative transportation routes. Further showing the necessity for developments in Afghanistan’s context is the knowledge that those in HTR locations are generally older and more marginalized showing that aid which is most necessary is the hardest to achieve. Lastly, Afghanistan has thousands of kilometers of unpaved roads which present unreliable transportation as they can degrade, especially in times of natural disasters. The most significant way that the United Nations can bring about change to the development of humanitarian aid from the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan’s perspective is the expansion of development and infrastructure grants. We call upon the development of grants to create transportation lines, both on road, by water, and through the air, mirroring the India-Middle East-European corridor. This corridor is where humanitarian concerns are developing while also connected to where the humanitarian resources are located. This will allow nations to develop routes to provide aid to the world's most needed while also having the benefit of providing for economic growth.

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