KABUL, 29 January 2022, (TON): The United States, Norway and other key European governments urged Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers to do more to gain international acceptance.

Special Representatives and Special Envoys of the European Union, France, Germany, Italy, Norway, the United Kingdom and the United States met in Oslo on Jan 24 to discuss the situation in Afghanistan.

The meeting included sessions with representatives of the Taliban and Afghan civil society actors.

In a joint statement released in Washington and Oslo, the participants urged the Taliban to do more to stop the alarming increase of human rights violations, including arbitrary detentions, forced disappearances, media crackdowns, extra-judicial killings, and torture.

The statement specifically mentioned Taliban-imposed prohibitions on women and girls’ education, employment and freedom to travel without a male escort and recent detentions of women’s rights activists.

The statement said that the Oslo meeting focused on the urgency in addressing the humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan and highlighted necessary steps to help alleviate the suffering of Afghans across the country.

Participants recognised steps taken to ease access for humanitarian workers, male and female, while also expressing concern that there were still certain impediments in place.