By Michelle Nichols
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) -The U.N.&nbsp;Security&nbsp;Council&nbsp;unanimously condemned on Thursday a&nbsp;Taliban&nbsp;administration&nbsp;ban&nbsp;on&nbsp;Afghan&nbsp;women&nbsp;working&nbsp;for the&nbsp;United Nations in&nbsp;Afghanistan and called on&nbsp;Taliban&nbsp;leaders to "swiftly reverse" a crackdown on the rights of&nbsp;women&nbsp;and girls.
The resolution - drafted by the&nbsp;United Arab Emirates and Japan - describes the&nbsp;ban&nbsp;as "unprecedented in the history of the&nbsp;United Nations," asserts "the indispensable role of&nbsp;women&nbsp;in&nbsp;Afghan&nbsp;society" and says the&nbsp;ban&nbsp;on&nbsp;Afghan&nbsp;women&nbsp;working&nbsp;for the U.N. "undermines human rights and humanitarian principles."
UAE U.N. Ambassador Lana Nusseibeh said more than 90 countries co-sponsored the resolution "from&nbsp;Afghanistan's immediate neighbourhood, from the Muslim world and from all corners of the earth."
"This ... support makes our fundamental message today even more significant - the world will not sit by silently as&nbsp;women&nbsp;in&nbsp;Afghanistan are erased from society," she told the&nbsp;council.
The&nbsp;Security&nbsp;Council&nbsp;vote came days before a planned international meeting in Doha on May 1-2 on&nbsp;Afghanistan. U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres will convene behind closed doors special envoys on&nbsp;Afghanistan from various countries to work on a&nbsp;unified approach to dealing with the&nbsp;Taliban.
"We will not stand for the&nbsp;Taliban's repression of&nbsp;women&nbsp;and girls," Deputy U.S. Ambassador to the&nbsp;United Nations, Robert Wood, told the&nbsp;council. "These decisions are indefensible. They are not seen anywhere else in the world."
"The&nbsp;Taliban&nbsp;edicts are causing irreparable damage to&nbsp;Afghanistan."
Earlier this month the&nbsp;Taliban&nbsp;began enforcing the&nbsp;ban&nbsp;on&nbsp;Afghan&nbsp;women&nbsp;working&nbsp;for the U.N. after stopping most&nbsp;women&nbsp;working&nbsp;for humanitarian aid groups in December. Since toppling the Western-backed government in 2021, they have also tightened controls on&nbsp;women's access to public life, including barring&nbsp;women&nbsp;from&nbsp;university and closing girls' high schools.
The&nbsp;Taliban&nbsp;says it respects&nbsp;women's rights in accordance with its strict interpretation of Islamic law.&nbsp;Taliban&nbsp;officials said decisions on female aid workers are an "internal issue."
The&nbsp;Security&nbsp;Council&nbsp;resolution also recognizes the need to address substantial challenges facing&nbsp;Afghanistan's economy, including through using assets belonging to&nbsp;Afghanistan's Central&nbsp;Bank for the benefit of the&nbsp;Afghan&nbsp;people.
The&nbsp;United States froze billions of the&nbsp;bank's reserves held in the U.S. and later transferred half of the money to a trust fund in Switzerland overseen by U.S., Swiss and&nbsp;Afghan&nbsp;trustees.
"As of today, what we have seen is only that assets have been transferred from one account to another, but not a single penny returned to the&nbsp;Afghan&nbsp;people," China's Deputy U.N. Ambassador Geng Shuang told the&nbsp;council.
Russia's U.N. Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia also called for the return of the&nbsp;Afghan&nbsp;Central&nbsp;Bank assets.
(Reporting by Michelle Nichols; Editing by Kanishka Singh and Stephen Coates)

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Security Council condemns Taliban ban on Afghan women working for UN