GENEVA (Reuters) – The U.N. Human Rights Council is to hold a special session next week on the situation in Afghanistan to address “serious human rights concerns” after the Taliban takeover, a United Nations statement said on Tuesday.
The Geneva forum is set to convene on Aug. 24 at the request of Pakistan and nearly 90 other countries supporting the move, it said. Convening a special session requires support from one-third of the Council’s 47 member states.
Backers so far include members Britain and France – but not China or Russia – while the United States was not among supporting countries with observer status, a provisional U.N. list showed.
(Reporting by Stephanie Nebehay, Editing by Rosalba O’Brien)
