SAFAR Afghanistan Briefing - September 2023

Two years on from the Taliban retaking power in Afghanistan, the SAFAR team – Stonewall and ILGA Asia – launch our Afghanistan Briefing Paper.

This brief aims to amplify the experiences of the LGBTQ+ people in Afghanistan who contact us on a daily basis and analyses the intersecting oppressions they face.  It offers recommendations on how they urgently need to be supported and empowered to access services.

The theme of the paper is ‘Too many to be given safe passage, too few to be part of humanitarian response’. We discuss this gap that LGBTQ+ people in Afghanistan have been left in, where their needs are not met through evacuation options, nor by in-country support.

This is not good enough. Together with ILGA Asia, we have set out specific recommendations based on our daily work with those at risk calling on the international community – governments, United Nations agencies, and civil society – to push harder for positive change. We want to see existing humanitarian projects adapt to specifically bring their support services to LGBTQ+ people. We advocate for new resettlement options for those whose lives remain at risk who continue after months, if not years to live in fear and in hiding. And we call for capacity building and funding for all actors to be able to carry out this work effectively.

In this briefing, you will find these and further recommendations. We invite any organisations who would like to collaborate on this work to get in touch.

We stand in solidarity with LGBTQ+ people in Afghanistan who face grave human rights abuses simply because of who they are.  Their treatment should shock us all and we hope that this year ahead can be one of action and a concerted effort by all actors to find solutions which will bring hope and concrete support to this community.