- The loss of foreign aid has severely damaged Afghanistan’s health system, exacerbating malnutrition and disease caused by inadequate medical care.
- The Taliban’s restrictions on women and girls impede access to medical care and jeopardize their right to health. A ban on education will ensure a shortage of future female health workers.
- The envoys, who will meet in Doha on February 18, 2024, should condemn the Taliban’s abuses while supporting resources for essential services such as the health system, banking, water management and electricity.
(New York) – Drastic cuts in foreign aid to Afghanistan’s public health system and severe abuses of women and girls by the Taliban are putting the right to health of millions of Afghans at risk, Human Rights Watch says.・Rights Watch stated in a report released today. The health crisis has left Afghans vulnerable to severe malnutrition and disease.
The 38-page report, “‘Foreseeable Future Disaster’: Afghanistan’s Healthcare Crisis,” explores how the collapse of Afghanistan’s economy following the Taliban takeover in August 2021 has severely damaged the country’s healthcare infrastructure. It explains what was given. Donor decisions to cut humanitarian aid further weakened access to health care, destabilized the economy, and exacerbated food insecurity. The Taliban’s abusive policies and practices have significantly exacerbated the crisis. The ban on education for women and girls has prevented much of the training of future female health workers, ensuring shortages for the foreseeable future.
“Loss of overseas development aid and Taliban rights abuses are creating a devastating health crisis in Afghanistan, disproportionately harming women and girls,” said Fereshta Abbasi, Afghanistan researcher at Human Rights Watch. Ta. “The Taliban have severely impeded women’s access to and access to medical care, and the cost of treatment and medicines has left many Afghans without access to health care.”
Human Rights Watch interviewed Afghan and foreign aid workers, health workers, and people seeking medical care in 16 of Afghanistan’s 34 provinces between February 2023 and January 2024.
At a UN-sponsored meeting of envoys from major countries scheduled for February 18, governments will press Taliban leaders to lift restrictions that hinder people’s access to health care, including bans on women’s education and employment. should be applied. The envoy will also need to address structural issues that undermine Afghanistan’s economic stability, such as those affecting water management, electricity supply, and the banking system.
For the past two decades, the Afghan government has relied on international development assistance from donors to fund essential services such as primary health care, even though Afghans have paid most of their medical bills out of pocket. The previous government’s contribution to the public primary care system was negligible, leaving the system vulnerable to collapse if aid was cut off. Taliban authorities have also allocated little funding to health care, and humanitarian organizations are struggling to fill the gap amid funding cuts that threaten this lifeline.
Afghans living in poverty have always faced difficulty accessing health care due to cost, but now an increasing number of Afghans are struggling to pay for food and are struggling to access health services. They are often unable to cover the costs of medical supplies and transportation.
“The price of my medicine has almost doubled since the Taliban came to power,” said a 54-year-old man living with a kidney infection. This is too much for someone without a job. ”
The United Nations estimates that 23.7 million people, more than half of Afghanistan’s population, will need humanitarian assistance in 2024. Although humanitarian agencies provide lifesaving assistance, they cannot replace all the essential services that traditionally relied on donor support.
As a Mercy Corps official stated in September 2023, “The humanitarian response in Afghanistan has not quite kept pace with the deteriorating situation in the country.”
The Taliban’s ban on women’s employment in humanitarian agencies creates further obstacles to the provision of equitable aid and exacerbates the crisis by depriving women and their families of income.strict hijab and Maharam (male guardianship) regulations prevent women from traveling for work or medical treatment.
“The Taliban have instructed us not to treat female patients who are not accompanied by a mahram or do not wear the full hijab,” said a doctor in Samangan.
Among those most affected by Afghanistan’s health crisis are people with disabilities. Afghanistan has one of the highest populations of people with disabilities in the world, due to decades of conflict and poor maternal health care. Due to a lack of aid, the few services for people with disabilities, such as physical rehabilitation and mental health support, have all but disappeared.
“Even before the Taliban took over, there were very few donors providing mental health services in major cities,” said a Kabul-based counselor. Now most of them are gone and people are in even more trouble. ” The Taliban’s restrictive policies further impede access to services for women and girls with disabilities.
“The unprecedented economic crisis in Afghanistan is putting millions of people at risk for their lives,” Abbasi said. “This situation requires more than humanitarian aid, it requires sustainable efforts to avoid further economic decline and alleviate the immense suffering of the Afghan people.”
