During the close to two-year Taliban’s rule in Afghanistan, the international community has mainly debated two issues with regards to the country: The dramatic consequences of the humanitarian crisis the country faces and the brutal exclusion of women from public and social life. Although both of these issues have been analyzed from multiple perspectives by practitioners, experts, and academics, less attention has been paid to the impact of the new threat landscape and the potential implications and interconnections emanating from terrorism, organized crime, drug trafficking, and other illicit economic activities. International, regional and other foreign actors have diverse views about security threats and risks emerging from the Taliban-run Afghanistan, given the highly problematic role and symbiotic relation of the de facto authorities with terrorist entities operating on Afghan soil. Despite their shared high degree of concern, there is an absence of any internationally agreed-upon strategy or common agenda on how to deal with the Taliban while managing insecurity within and coming from Afghanistan.

On 22nd June 2023, the Permanent Missions of Afghanistan, Canada and Spain, jointly with the Afghanistan Policy Lab of the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs (SPIA), the Counter Extremism Project (CEP) and the International Institute for Justice and the Rule of Law (IIJ) will hold a side event to discuss these and other relevant matters in the context of the current threat landscape of Taliban-run Afghanistan. The event will address the challenges Member States face in implementing relevant Security Council resolutions and adopting operational security measures within the rule of law framework to preserve the fundamental rights and freedoms of the Afghan people in a manner that is consistent with the overall objective of promoting peace and stability in Afghanistan under the Charter of the United Nations and international law, and in line with obligations under international human rights law, refugee law, and humanitarian law.

The event will bring together relevant counter-terrorism experts, practitioners, and academics who will share their insights and first-hand experiences for overcoming these challenges. Furthermore, the event will serve as a platform to discuss the 14th report of the Analytical Support and Sanctions Monitoring Team pursuant to resolution 2665 (2022) concerning the Taliban and the KAS-CEP report "The Taliban's Takeover in Afghanistan-Effects on Global Terrorism".