Geographically located in Europe and surrounded by EU Member States, the six Western Balkan (WB) countries – Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia, and Serbia – are strategic partners of the EU, which, since the 2003 EU-Western Balkans Summit in Thessaloniki, have been promised a path towards their 'European future'.
This briefing analyses the current situation of women's rights in Afghanistan, taking a long view. Women's rights have been an intense battleground between different actors for over a century, with periods of promising reforms followed by resistance and often reversals of progress.