Amnesty International on Aug. 24 called for the application of "universal jurisdiction" against members of the Taliban accused of crimes under international law. Invocation of this doctrine would give any country the power to prosecute Taliban members for such violations. The statement came two days after a report by the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) which found that Taliban de facto authorities have been committing extrajudicial killings, arbitrary arrests, torture and other forms of maltreatment against former members of Afghanistan's government and security forces. The report said that UNAMA has recorded at least 218 such extrajudicial killings in less than two years, from August 2021 to June 2023. Amnesty stated: "The new UNAMA report demonstrates an unending pattern of extrajudicial killings against members of the former government and security forces since Taliban's return to power in August 2021."

The United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) released a statement Aug. 14 condemning the idea that the Taliban are "reformed" since the last time they were in power in Afghanistan. The statement, written by multiple human rights experts, drew attention to the gap between the promises made by the Taliban upon its return to power in August 2021 and the reality of "gender apartheid" in Afghanistan.

Roza Otunbayeva, the UN's special representative for Afghanistan, told the Security Council on June 21 that the Taliban's continued restrictions on women made it "nearly impossible" for the international community to recognize it as a legitimate government. In particular, Otunbayeva referred to an April edict banning Afghan women from working with the UN—a follow-up to an earlier ban on them working for local or international NGOs. However, the Islamic Emirate, as the Taliban prefers to be known, continues to push for international recognition, most recently at a meeting of stakeholders in Oslo.

A group of Afghan women on April 29 marched in the capital Kabul to urge the United Nations not to formally recognize the Taliban government. Approximately two dozen women took to the streets despite the Taliban government's increasingly strict crackdowns on women. During the march, protesters chanted that they would fight and die for their dignity and condemned the UN, stating that the pending recognition of the Taliban would be a violation of women's rights.

Despite worsening economic and humanitarian situation in Afghanistan, the Pakistani government is intensifying its crackdown on Afghan refugees, adding new movement restrictions on top of a wave of detentions and deportations. On March 18, some 330 Afghans were returned from Pakistan, including 70 who had been imprisoned for lacking documentation—just the latest to be sent home as Islamabad doubles down on its hardline approach.

More than 271,000 Ukrainians have been admitted to the United States since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24 last year–far exceeding the goal of 100,000 set by President Joe Biden's administration last March. More than 117,000 entered through a private sponsorship program that allows US citizens to financially support Ukrainians to come to the country and stay for up to two years. Other Ukrainians crossed the US-Mexico border before the private sponsorship initiative was launched, or entered the United States through the official refugee resettlement program.

Afghanistan's Taliban regime has agreed to sign a contract with a Chinese company to exploit oil in the Amu Darya basin in the country's north, the acting mining minister announced Jan. 5. The contract with the Xinjiang Central Asia Petroleum & Gas Co. (CAPEIC) is to be the first major resource extraction deal the regime has signed with a foreign company since taking power in 2021. "The Amu Darya oil contract is an important project between China and Afghanistan," China's ambassador, Wang Yu, told a joint press conference with Taliban officials in Kabul. Beijing has not formally recognized the Taliban government but has significant interests in Afghanistan, a country deemed critical for its Belt & Road Initiative.

Several international aid organizations have suspended their work in Afghanistan in response to a new Taliban edict barring Afghan women from working with any local or foreign NGO until further notice, while the UN is urging the "Islamic Emirate" to reverse its decision. The Afghan Ministry of Economy issued the order on Dec. 24, warning that any organization that fails to comply will have their licence to operate in the nation revoked.