KATHMANDU, OCTOBER 26

The CEDAW has called for safeguarding the fundamental freedoms of women and girls in Afghanistan.

The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) emphasized the need to ensure Afghan women and children's access to education, employment and presence in public spaces among others as enshrined in the CEDAW.

Bandana Rana, CEDAW's member and Chairperson of the Working Group on Afghanistan expressed CEDAW's ''profound'' concern over the ''severe'' regression in women and children rights in Afghanistan in a meeting at the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, Switzerland yesterday.

The CEDAW is an international treaty adopted in 1979 by the United Nations General Assembly.

During the meeting, Rana instructed the government of Afghanistan and civil society to uphold to the norms and values outlined in the CEDAW convention.

Rana, on the behalf of the Working Group, called on the government of Afghanistan to implement measures to prevent gender-based violence and curtailment of women and children rights in all sectors, thereby ensuring rights of women and children to education and employment among others.

During the meeting, she also urged for compliance with the commitments made by the Afghan government regarding women and children.

According to her, the CEDAW Committee's concluding observations is in process of preparing fourth periodic report on the Afghanistan which is expected to provide insights into the ground realities of the situation of women and children.