The UNESCO credentials committee, made up of 16 countries including Saudi Arabia, Libya, the UK and Afghanistan itself, is set to vote on whether the Taliban will inherit Afghanistan’s seat on UNESCO’s Executive Board – which it is meant to hold until 2023. The board oversees UNESCO’s work on education (including girls’ access), the prevention of violent extremism and the protection of world heritage sites. The same Taliban who blew up the 6th century Buddhas of Bamiyan in 2001…

The Taliban is also poised to inherit a position on the Economic and Social Council – the top UN body Afghanistan was elected to for the 2022-2024 term – which regulates human rights groups and oversees the UN women’s rights commission. Guido thought Iran chairing the Women’s Rights Commission would be peak UN farce…

Lawyer and Human Rights activist Hillel Neuer has said:

“Allowing a misogynistic, murderous band of terrorists to influence these world bodies would be absurd, immoral and obscene… Putting the Taliban in charge of protecting world heritage and women’s rights would be like making a pyromaniac into the town fire chief” 

During the Taliban’s last reign from 1996 to 2001, the UN refused to recognise them – will the increasingly absurd body finally draw a line?