A two-day UN conference on Afghanistan kicked off in Qatar on Sunday. The event, chaired by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, will address approaches to increasing international engagement with the impoverished and war-torn Muslim country.

The prospects of success appear limited from the start, as the country's ruling Taliban has refused to attend after its demand of being "the sole official representative of Afghanistan" at the conference was turned down.

Another demand that was not met was a guarantee that no one at the conference would criticize the militant Islamic theocrats and how they have run the country since returning to power in August 2021.

Jan Egeland, secretary-general of the Norwegian Refugee Council, a humanitarian organization, took to X, formerly Twitter, on Sunday to write, "Disappointing that the Taliban declined to attend the special envoy meeting for Afghanistan in Doha this week."

Human rights groups invited to Afghan conference, will it matter?

Instead, the meeting will give a forum to women and civic groups concerned with the dire human rights situation in the country.

UN Special Coordinator Feridun Sinirlioglu, for instance, recently released a report recommending reintegrating Afghanistan into the international economic and political system.

Sinirlioglu made that reintegration contingent upon the Taliban meeting its international obligations but the religious militants — whom Washington dislodged from power in 2001 and then allowed to return when the US withdrew its troops after ending a 20-year war in the country — have utterly rejected calls for the creation of an "inclusive government."

The Taliban has also continued, among other things, its brutal oppression of women, whom it does not allow to attend school or work, something the UN has previously described as "gender apartheid."

The UN Working Group on Women, Peace and Security called the Doha meeting, "an opportunity for the UN, the Security Council and the international community to reaffirm that the rights of Afghan women are not negotiable."

The Taliban's strict Islamist governance has resulted in Western nations refusing to recognize the group as legitimate rulers and caused nations, donors and aid organizations to withdraw from the country, further imperiling Afghanistan's already dire economic situation.

A list of international participants scheduled to attend the meeting included the US, China, Pakistan and the European Union but with the Taliban rejecting international calls for change — including its continued rejection of the idea of appointing a special UN envoy — the prospects of the "meaningful and inclusive meetings" envisioned by UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in Afghanistan Richard Bennet seem questionable.

js/lo (AFP, dpa)