ICC prosecutor seeks arrest of Taliban leaders for ‘persecution of Afghan girls and women’
The chief prosecutor at the International Criminal Court (ICC) says he will seek arrest warrants against senior leaders of the Taliban government in Afghanistan for persecuting women and girls.
Karim Khan said there are reasonable grounds to suspect that Supreme Leader Haibatullah Akhundzada and Chief Justice Abdul Hakim Haqqani bear criminal responsibility for gender-based crimes against humanity.
ICC judges will now decide whether to issue an arrest warrant.
The ICC investigates and brings to justice those responsible for genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes, intervening when national authorities are unable or unwilling to prosecute.
In a statement, Mr. Khan said the two men were “criminally responsible for the persecution of Afghan girls and women, as well as those the Taliban saw as inconsistent with their ideological expectations of gender identity or expression, and those the Taliban saw as allies of girls and women.” .
Opposition to the Taliban government “has been brutally suppressed by committing crimes including murder, imprisonment, torture, rape and other forms of sexual violence, enforced disappearances and other inhuman acts,” he added.
The persecution was committed from at least August 15, 2021 until today, throughout Afghanistan, the statement said.
Akhundzada became the supreme commander of the Taliban in 2016 and is now the leader of the so-called Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan. In the 1980s, he participated in Islamist groups that fought against the Soviet military campaign in Afghanistan.
Haqqani was a close associate of Taliban founder Mullah Omar and served as a negotiator on behalf of the Taliban during talks with US representatives in 2020.
The Taliban government has yet to comment on the ICC statement.
The Taliban regained power in Afghanistan in 2021, 20 years after a US-led invasion toppled their regime in the wake of the 9/11 attacks in New York, but their government has not been officially recognized by any other foreign power.
“Morality laws” have since meant that women have lost dozens of rights in the country.
Afghanistan is now the only country in the world where women and girls are denied access to secondary and higher education – about one and a half million have been deliberately deprived of education.
The Taliban have repeatedly promised to be readmitted to the school once a number of issues are resolved – including ensuring the curriculum is “Islamic”. This has yet to happen.
Beauty salons are closed, and women are prohibited from entering public parks, gyms and swimming pools.
The dress code means they must be fully covered, and strict rules prohibit them from traveling without a male companion or making eye contact with a man unless they are related by blood or marriage.
In December of women are also prohibited from training as midwives and nurseswhich effectively closed their last path to further education in the country.
