UN Security Council
2016

increasingly large majority of which are caused by the Taliban, Al -Qaida and other violent and extremist groups and illegal armed groups, condemning the suicide attacks, often in civilian-populated areas, and the targeted and deliberate killings, in particular of women and girls, including high-level women officials and those promoting women’s rights, as well as journalists, reaffirming that all parties to armed conflict must take all feasible steps to ensure the protection of affected civilians, especially women, children and displaced persons, including from sexual violence and all other forms of gender-based violence, and that perpetrators of such violence must be held accountable, calling for all parties to comply with their obligations under international law including international humanitarian law and human rights law and for all appropriate measures to be taken to ensure the protection of civilians, and recognizing the importance of the ongoing monitoring and reporting to the United Nations Security Council, of the situation of civilians and in particular civilian casualties, taking note of the efforts made by Afghan and