Overview
- UNAMA and OCHA presented reports to the Security Council on Monday that warned legal changes and hundreds of decrees since 2021 are institutionalizing discrimination and worsening humanitarian needs.
- The reports say roughly 21.9–22 million people now need assistance, 4.7 million face severe food insecurity, and 3.7 million children suffer acute malnutrition.
- Civil society and UN officials highlighted a recently enacted Criminal Procedure Code that they say formalizes discrimination and could legalize violence against women.
- Humanitarian operations are being undermined by operational limits such as the exclusion of Afghan female UN staff from UN premises, which is reducing aid reach and ability to deliver services.
- The UK condemned the decrees at the council, pledged more than $200 million in recent assistance, and urged continued UN engagement as mass returnees and climate shocks deepen economic and social strain.