Anjilla Areezo

• Comment: These sources are not reliable. – LuniZunie_(talk) 23:06, 26 January 2026 (UTC)

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Anjila Arzo is an Afghan human rights defender, international advocate and former media-safety worker. Her work has focused on the safety of journalists in Afghanistan, the rights and participation of women journalists, and the rights of migrant women. She worked with the Afghan Journalists Safety Committee before leaving Afghanistan after the Taliban returned to power in 2021. She later became involved in international advocacy on migration and gender, including through engagement with United Nations human rights processes.

Biography

Areezo worked with the Afghan Journalists Safety Committee, an Afghan non-governmental organisation supporting journalists facing violence, intimidation and death threats. According to The Irish Times, her work with the organisation placed her in immediate danger after the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan in August 2021.

The day after the fall of Kabul, Areezo was offered a visa to leave Afghanistan through the Irish-based human rights organisation Front Line Defenders, due in part to her role working to protect journalists in Afghanistan.

Work on journalist safety and women journalists

Before leaving Afghanistan, Areezo worked in the field of journalist safety through the Afghan Journalists Safety Committee. The organisation worked with journalists and media workers facing violence and threats in Afghanistan.

In 2019, the Afghan newspaper 8am named Anjila Arzo as a member of a 12-person women journalists’ advocacy group established in connection with the Afghan Journalists Safety Committee. The group was created to advocate for the implementation of a policy prohibiting sexual harassment of women in media workplaces and for the inclusion of that policy in employment contracts used by media organisations.

In April 2020, International Media Support reported that the Committee had prepared a roadmap, in collaboration with Afghan media representatives, to support press freedom and freedom of expression during the Afghan reconciliation process.

Migration and international advocacy

After leaving Afghanistan, Areezo continued advocacy work connected with migration, gender and human rights. She became a member of the Global Strategic Advisory Group on Gender and Migration of the Border Violence Monitoring Network.

Areezo was invited as a panelist at the Human Rights Council to give evidence on the human rights of migrants. The panel was convened pursuant to Human Rights Council resolution 57/14 and addressed harmful narratives about migrants, xenophobia, and the strengthening of monitoring and complaint mechanisms at international borders.

The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights reported on Areezo's engament in high-level UN events, and evidence provided on human rights violations at the external borders of Europe, including secret and arbitrary detention and forced returns facilitated by new technologies. The report stated that she called for a strong, independent and transparent monitoring mechanism legally mandated to cooperate with civil society and empowered to receive and follow up on credible information.

Areezo was invited by the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination and the UN Committee on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families to provide evidence and intervention during a joint session in Geneva on xenophobia towards migrants and others perceived as such.

References

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