On Friday 12 December, the Minister for Foreign Affairs, European Union and Cooperation, José Manuel Albares, welcomed around fifty Afghan women to the conference ‘HearUs 2025: Promoting accountability for women in Afghanistan’, organised at the headquarters of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, European Union and Cooperation in collaboration with Women For Afghanistan.
In his opening remarks, Albares highlighted the importance of the HearUs conference and international efforts to promote the rights of Afghan women and girls. He did so by pointing out that ‘today we are here to ensure that your voice, the voice of free Afghan women, is heard loud and clear throughout the world and that your image becomes an example that speech is possible, justice is possible, freedom is possible, and all of this is something that neither you nor we will ever give up’.
The minister expressed Spain's support for Afghan women and highlighted their courage: ‘No one will stop you because you chose the most difficult but also the most courageous path. You decided to speak out when they wanted to silence you, you chose to claim your rights when they wanted to discriminate against you, you decided to organise yourselves when they wanted to separate you’.
The minister referred to the deterioration of human rights in Afghanistan, which particularly affects women and girls and chains them to cycles of poverty and violence. He stressed that, today, 18 million women are excluded from public and social life, which affects all areas of their lives, such as food, education, access to healthcare, increased maternal mortality, increased child marriages and teenage pregnancies.
Albares contextualised the deterioration of rights in Afghanistan as ‘the most devastating example of a phenomenon that, unfortunately, is not isolated’, referring to different movements around the world that question the very idea of women's rights and their progress, and emphasised that the situation of Afghan women is not a distant issue. ‘You, the Afghan women, are defending your rights and, in doing so, you are defending democracy, freedom and the very idea of humanity’.
Support from Spain
The minister recalled that, from the moment the Taliban regime was restored, Spain was at the forefront of condemning it and, among other actions, supported the creation of international mechanisms for justice, such as the independent mechanism for investigating human rights violations in Afghanistan within the European Union and the United Nations Human Rights Council.
Our country continues to support all international mechanisms aimed at combating impunity and protecting victims. In November 2024, Spain, together with Chile, Costa Rica, France, Luxembourg and Mexico, sent a letter to the Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court requesting that it examine the situation of Afghan women and girls. And in January 2025, the Court issued arrest warrants for the two highest authorities of the de facto Taliban government.
Last October, the historic People's Tribunal for Afghan Women was held in Madrid. This initiative, supported by the Foreign Ministry, allowed testimonies to be heard, the normalisation of oppression to be denounced and new avenues to be opened up to demand justice.
For its part, Spain's humanitarian action in Afghanistan makes specific contributions that focus on women, with the aim of addressing issues related to health, sexual and reproductive rights, equality and education for Afghan women and girls. Spain provides sustained support to the United Nations Women’s Peace and Humanitarian Fund, which enables local Afghan civil society organisations to provide emergency aid, protect women and girls from sexual and gender-based violence, and strengthen their participation in peace processes.
In 2024, the AECID allocated €5.6 million to interventions in Afghanistan through various international agencies. And in 2025, Spain has reinforced this line of work with new contributions, including €2 million to the Red Cross Committee in Afghanistan and €500,000 to the International Federation of Red Cross Societies' emergency appeal following the earthquake on 31 August.
The HearUs 2025 conference
HearUs 2025 reaffirms the commitment of Spain and the international community to justice, equality and the empowerment of Afghan women and girls. This meeting, which exemplifies Spain's Feminist Foreign Policy, seeks to establish a shared and practical roadmap for justice, accountability and the long-term protection of their human rights through international legal mechanisms. The conference builds on the outcomes of HearUs 2024, organised in Madrid, and the All Afghan Women Summit held in Tirana.
The conference also featured speeches by Michelle Bachelet, former United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and Vice-President of the Club of Madrid; Richard Bennet, Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Afghanistan; and Fawzia Koofi, Chair of the Board of Directors of Women for Afghanistan.
For images of the event, click here
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