Six months ago in September 2020, the Afghani government and the Taliban, a non-state terrorist organization, began working on peace negotiations with one another. During a video conference regarding the negotiation efforts, Deborah Lyons, head of the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) believed that now is time to reassess the situation and see how the negotiation efforts are going thus far.
Lyons reported that the negotiation efforts seemed to be going well on both sides and that “substantive progress” was being made. With that being said, Lyons also acknowledged that decisions needed to be made with the best interest of the people of Afghanistan at heart, rather than any external factors or selfish interests. In order for this goal to be achieved, Lyons advises that “integrated, mutually reinforcing, and, most importantly, are in the best interests of the Afghan people”.
This is not only a beneficial situation for government leaders in the Middle East, but also for the citizens of Afghanistan. According to the UNAMA, Afghani residents have been living in conflict for many years and are “demanding peace.” It was reported that in the first two months of 2021, there was a continued trend of increasing conflict against civilians with more than 80 UNAMA-documented Afghans killed.
Even with this being the case, the country as a whole is still moving in a positive direction. Lyons notes that the Afghanistan of today is not the same as it was 20 years ago. Many Afghani citizens have “grown up with aspirations for a proper education, in a country where women have economic and political power and civil society has the space to flourish.” Achieving peace within Afghanistan is possible with the right resources and the willingness of all parties to stop violence completely, as Lyons stated in her report.
To know more, please read:
https://news.un.org/en/story/2021/03/1088112
https://www.ungeneva.org/en/news-media
Author: Gabriella Pavlakis; Editor: Sitara Sandhu
