Open Letter to President Donald J. Trump and the United Nations Secretary-General on Behalf of Displaced Afghans Worldwide

To President Donald J. Trump,
To United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres,
Cc: Members of the United Nations Security Council

We at Displaced International, speaking on behalf of Afghan displaced and refugee communities worldwide, write in deep sorrow and concern following the recent shooting that took the life of Specialist Sarah Beckstrom and gravely wounded Staff Sgt. Andrew Wolfe. We extend our heartfelt condolences to their families, loved ones, and fellow service members who are mourning a devastating loss. This tragedy has understandably shaken many, but it has also triggered policy debates about Afghans in the United States that risk turning grief into suspicion and collective blame.

Afghan refugees and other displaced Afghans, including those resettled in the United States and elsewhere, did not leave their homes by choice. They were forced to flee because the current political and security status quo in Afghanistan has left them with no safe, dignified way to remain in their country. Many have survived war, persecution, and betrayal; they now worry they may be judged not as individuals, but as a threat. We respectfully urge that no form of collective punishment, scapegoating, or policy backlash be directed at Afghan refugees, asylum seekers, or other displaced Afghans in response to a single tragic incident involving one individual.

Today, under Taliban rule, Afghans face systematic persecution, gender-based discrimination amounting to gender apartheid, widespread impunity for violence, economic collapse, and a worsening humanitarian crisis. These are not abstract claims but documented realities. UNAMA and the wider UN human rights system have described them in detail, including in Human rights in Afghanistan: 15 August 2021 – 15 June 2022 and subsequent updates on the Human Rights Situation in Afghanistan, as well as in the Special Rapporteur’s reports on the situation of women and girls in Afghanistan and the broader human rights situation in Afghanistan. Afghan refugees, asylum seekers, and other displaced Afghans are fleeing exactly these conditions—families split at borders, girls denied education, former officials hunted, communities living in fear. Any durable policy by the United States, working in close partnership with the United Nations, must therefore address the root causes of displacement in Afghanistan, not only its symptoms.

To help chart such a course, Displaced International recently hosted an international conference, “Afghanistan Four Years On: Forced Displacement, Root Causes, and the Path to Peace,” in partnership with Arizona State University’s Leadership, Diplomacy and National Security Lab. Participants included former U.S. and allied diplomats and generals, former senior Afghan government officials, subject-matter experts, Afghan women leaders, and other practitioners who have lived, worked, and sacrificed alongside Afghans.

Drawing on their combined expertise, the conference produced recommendations aimed at tackling the root causes of forced displacement in ways that also strengthen U.S. homeland security, regional stability, and international peace and security—consistent with the UN Charter and key UN Security Council resolutions on Afghanistan, including Resolution 2593 (2021), Resolution 2615 (2021), Resolution 2626 (2022), Resolution 2678 (2023), Resolution 2679 (2023), and Resolution 2681 (2023), as well as the Secretary-General’s independent assessment S/2023/856 prepared pursuant to Resolution 2679. Together, these documents and our conference findings point toward a practical, shared agenda.

In this spirit, we urge President Trump, in close collaboration with the UN Secretary-General and the Security Council, to champion the following course of action:

• Lead a UN-backed political roadmap that removes the conditions for terrorism and mass flight. Support, together with the UN, an Afghan-led, UN-mandated multilateral process to move beyond Taliban rule toward a legitimate, inclusive, democratic government that respects human rights and international obligations. This would operationalize the Security Council’s demand in Resolution 2593 (2021) that Afghan territory never again be used to threaten or attack any country or to shelter terrorists, and align with the vision of a “secure, stable, prosperous and inclusive Afghanistan” set out in Resolution 2679 (2023) and elaborated in the Secretary-General’s independent assessment S/2023/856. A credible political roadmap, jointly supported by Washington and the UN system, is essential to removing the structural drivers of terrorism, forced displacement, and regional instability that push ordinary Afghans from their homes.

• Make accountability for terrorism, atrocities and gender persecution a core security priority. Treat justice and accountability for terrorism, war crimes, crimes against humanity, and gender-based persecution as essential—not optional—to breaking cycles of radicalization that threaten U.S., regional, and global security. UNAMA and OHCHR have documented grave violations against civilians, including targeted killings, torture, and widespread abuses of women and girls, in reports such as Human rights in Afghanistan: 15 August 2021 – 15 June 2022 and the Human Rights Council reports on the situation of women and girls in Afghanistan and the human rights situation in Afghanistan. For Afghan families, these are not statistics but personal tragedies—sons disappeared, daughters forced out of school, communities silenced by fear. U.S. leadership, working with the UN, can ensure these findings inform sanctions listings, support for investigative mechanisms, and cooperation with international justice bodies so that perpetrators understand there will be consequences.

• Confront gender apartheid as a driver of instability and extremism. Make clear—through joint U.S.–UN diplomacy—that any political or diplomatic engagement with the Taliban is conditioned on verifiable reversal of bans on women’s and girls’ education, work, public participation, and freedom of movement. These policies have been condemned by the Security Council in Resolution 2681 (2023) and in UNAMA’s statement on the de facto authorities’ decision to ban Afghan women working for the UN. The independent assessment S/2023/856 and the Special Rapporteur’s reports make clear that systematic discrimination against women and girls is incompatible with both the UN Charter and long-term stability. Every time a girl is turned away from a classroom or a woman is barred from earning a livelihood, Afghanistan’s future becomes more fragile. Placing Afghan women—including displaced women—at the center of political and peace processes should therefore be a shared security imperative for the United States and the United Nations.

• Protect refugees and former ANDSF as a frontline investment in security and rule of law. Work with UNHCR, UNAMA, and regional partners to halt mass deportations and forced returns of Afghans from neighboring countries in violation of non-refoulement. The UNAMA/OHCHR report “No Safe Haven: Human rights risks faced by persons involuntarily returned to Afghanistan” and related press releases document torture, ill-treatment, arbitrary detention, and serious threats faced by those involuntarily returned. Behind these findings are individual stories: families split at borders, former soldiers hunted, children returned to places they barely remember. Recognize former Afghan National Defense and Security Forces (ANDSF) personnel and other at-risk Afghans as refugees under international law; expand resettlement, family reunification, and labor mobility pathways; and adopt measures such as the Afghan Adjustment Act to regularize those already in the United States. Coordinated U.S.–UN action in this area would honor commitments to those who stood with U.S. and allied forces, deny extremist groups a pool of abandoned allies, and respond to the UN’s warning that large-scale forced returns risk further destabilization and renewed cross-border insecurity.

• Use calibrated economic and diplomatic pressure to deny the Taliban strategic rents while sustaining the Afghan population. Maintain and, where necessary, tighten targeted sanctions against Taliban leaders and entities, while fully implementing the humanitarian carve-out established by Resolution 2615 (2021), which clarifies that the provision of humanitarian assistance and support for basic human needs does not violate sanctions. UN analyses and UNAMA’s humanitarian and human rights reporting highlight that properly implemented humanitarian exceptions—designed and overseen in partnership between the United States, the UN, and donors—are essential to preventing economic collapse from turning into uncontrolled displacement and radicalization. For Afghan households, this means food on the table, medicine in clinics, and children staying in communities rather than being forced into perilous journeys. Aid and basic services should be delivered through transparent, community-based, and where possible women-led mechanisms that reduce reliance on de facto authorities while addressing the basic needs of Afghans most at risk.

• Implement an integrated approach, as proposed in the Secretary-General’s independent assessment, to avoid security vacuums. Act on Resolution 2679 (2023) and the Secretary-General’s independent assessment S/2023/856, which call for an “integrated and coherent approach” that brings together political, humanitarian, and development tools to advance a secure, stable, prosperous, and inclusive Afghanistan. UNAMA and the Secretary-General’s regular reports on the situation in Afghanistan underscore that the current trajectory risks either long-term crisis or abrupt destabilization. When institutions are hollowed out and young people see no legitimate future, vacuums are filled by armed groups and criminal networks. U.S. engagement, coordinated closely with the UN, can support Afghan civil society, technocrats, and diaspora networks to prepare for a rule-of-law-based order and help prevent the kind of security vacuum that in the past has threatened international peace and security.

• Treat public health, economic collapse, and climate stress as hard security issues. The Secretary-General’s reports to the Council, along with UNAMA’s periodic Human Rights Situation and humanitarian updates, describe Afghanistan as one of the world’s largest humanitarian crises, with two-thirds of the population needing assistance and critical strains on health, livelihoods, and basic services. These are families skipping meals, hospitals without supplies, and farmers watching crops fail—conditions that drive onward movement, trafficking, and criminality, and create fertile ground for extremist recruitment. U.S.–UN cooperation to implement assistance consistent with Resolution 2615 (2021) and UNAMA’s mandate under Resolutions 2626 (2022) and 2678 (2023) can stabilize basic services and livelihoods, thereby directly reducing security risks for the region and beyond.

• Reframe the narrative so that protecting Afghans is understood as protecting U.S. and international security. The Security Council and UNAMA have repeatedly underscored, in resolutions like 2593 (2021) and in reports on women’s rights and Women, Peace and Security, that Afghanistan’s trajectory has direct implications for international peace and security. UNAMA’s human rights reporting, together with the resilience of Afghan women and civil society documented therein, shows that Afghans remain key partners in building a safer future. When the United States, under your leadership, works hand-in-hand with the UN to protect Afghan refugees and at-risk communities, support Afghan and international human rights documentation efforts, and listen to Afghan and veteran voices, it sends a powerful message: that those who stood for freedom and security are not abandoned, and that upholding human dignity is part of keeping the world safe.

On behalf of Afghan refugees, asylum seekers, and other displaced Afghan communities across the world, we respectfully ask President Trump—and, in partnership with him, the UN Secretary-General and Members of the UN Security Council—to study Displaced International’s conference report alongside the Secretary-General’s independent assessment S/2023/856, the Security Council resolutions cited above, and UNAMA’s human rights and humanitarian reporting. Together, these provide complementary roadmaps for addressing, on a sustainable and humane basis, the root causes of forced displacement from Afghanistan—while strengthening U.S. homeland security, supporting regional stability, and fulfilling the shared responsibility, under the UN Charter, for the maintenance of international peace and security.