UN human rights chief says 21.9 million Afghans, about 45 per cent of the population, need aid

9 September 2026

Volker Turk, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, has said an estimated 21.9 million people in Afghanistan, about 45 per cent of the population, need humanitarian assistance. He said more than two million Afghan girls and women have been shut out of secondary and higher education since 2021, and that those now in power inflicted corporal punishment on at least 449 men and women over the year's first six months. The UN refugee agency's figures show more than 400,000 Afghans forcibly returned, mainly from Iran and Pakistan but also from Turkiye, Tajikistan and member states of the European Union. He pointed to arrests by the authorities' body for the propagation of virtue and the prevention of vice, and to the complete absence of women from public decision-making, which he described as gender apartheid. He also said foreign aid inflows are drying up. The High Commissioner leads the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights in Geneva.