Chinese envoy urges Afghan authorities to effectively protect basic rights of women, girls

UNITED NATIONS -- A Chinese envoy on Wednesday urged the Afghan interim government to address the legitimate concerns of the international community and take steps to effectively protect the basic rights of women and girls.

Amid the mess left by the hasty withdrawal of foreign troops, the Afghan authorities have worked hard to stabilize the security situation, improve the economy and people's livelihoods, and strengthen regional and international dialogue and cooperation, said Fu Cong, China's permanent representative to the UN, at the Security Council briefing on the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan.

"This momentum is not easy to come by," said the ambassador, noting that Afghanistan continues to face multiple challenges.

Underscoring that Afghanistan's recent vice and virtue law has raised international concerns, Fu said "We must realize that women's rights and interests cannot be realized in a vacuum and that microphone diplomacy will not help solve the problem," urging the international community to take a comprehensive and objective view of the situation in Afghanistan.

He said the international community should support Afghan peaceful reconstruction and economic recovery, help it eliminate the root causes of instability and underdevelopment, and create conditions conducive to safeguarding the rights and interests of all its people, including women.

He called for maintaining the interactions with the Afghan authorities, and scaling up efforts to help Afghanistan overcome its difficulties. "Overseas assets of Afghanistan are Afghan people's life-saving money," Fu stressed, noting that the United States should "unconditionally unfreeze and return them all to the Afghan authorities."

The ambassador also called for supporting the Afghan interim government in its fight against terrorism, urging it to take vigorous actions to resolutely combat the various terrorist forces in its territory and to prevent Afghanistan from becoming an enclave for terrorist organizations again.

He added that the international community should support Afghanistan in launching alternative cultivation and drug rehabilitation programs and in combating narcotics smuggling to further consolidate achievements in the fight against narcotics.

Fu said that China, as a friendly neighbor of Afghanistan, "is ready to work with regional countries and the international community to continue to provide assistance to the Afghan people to the best of its ability and to promote lasting peace, security, development, and prosperity of Afghanistan."