ICC issues arrest warrants of top Taliban leaders

THE HAGUE:

The International Criminal Court on Tuesday issued arrest warrants for two senior Taliban leaders, accusing them of crimes against humanity for persecuting women and girls.

Judges said there were "reasonable grounds" to suspect Taliban Supreme Leader Hibatullah Akhundzada and chief justice Abdul Hakim Haqqani of committing gender-based persecution.

"While the Taliban have imposed certain rules and prohibitions on the population as a whole, they have specifically targeted girls and women by reason of their gender, depriving them of fundamental rights and freedoms," the court said in a statement.

The Taliban had "severely deprived" girls and women of the rights to education, privacy and family life and the freedoms of movement, expression, thought, conscience and religion, ICC judges said.

"In addition, other persons were targeted because certain expressions of sexuality and/or gender identity were regarded as inconsistent with the Taliban's policy on gender."

The court said the alleged crimes had been committed between August 15, 2021, when the Taliban seized power, and continued until at least January 20, 2025.

The Taliban government barred girls from secondary school and women from university in the first 18 months after they ousted the US-backed government, making Afghanistan the only country in the world to impose such bans.

Authorities imposed restrictions on women working for non-governmental groups and other employment, with thousands of women losing government jobs—or being paid to stay home.

Beauty salons have been closed and women blocked from visiting public parks, gyms and baths as well as travelling long distances without a male chaperone.

A "vice and virtue" law announced last summer ordered women not to sing or recite poetry in public and for their voices and bodies to be "concealed" outside the home.

When requesting the arrest warrants in January, chief prosecutor Karim Khan said Afghan women and girls, as well as the LGBTQ community, were facing "an unprecedented, unconscionable and ongoing persecution by the Taliban".

"Our action signals that the status quo for women and girls in Afghanistan is not acceptable," he added.

Khan warned at the time he would soon be seeking additional warrants for other Taliban officials.

United Nations

The United Nations General Assembly on Monday denounced the "systematic oppression" of women and girls in Afghanistan by the country's Taliban authorities.

The resolution was adopted by 116 votes in favor versus the United States and Israel against, with 12 abstentions.

The text "expresses its serious concern about the grave, worsening, widespread and systematic oppression of all women and girls in Afghanistan by the Taliban."

It said the Taliban, a strictly conservative Islamist armed group that took control of the country in 2021, "has put in place an institutionalized system of discrimination, segregation, disrespect for human dignity and the exclusion of women and girls."

Since taking power, Taliban authorities, who also ruled the country between 1996 and 2001, have restricted women's education and ability to work, and barred them from participation in many forms of public life.

Member states called on the Taliban "to swiftly reverse contradictory policies and practices," including laws that "extend the already intolerable restrictions on the human rights of women and girls and on basic personal freedoms for all Afghans."

The resolution welcomed the Doha talks, initiated in 2023 by the UN to coordinate the international community's approach to the Taliban authorities, and called on UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres to appoint a coordinator to facilitate that process.

The United States opposed the resolution and rejected engagement with the Taliban government.

"Nearly four years following the Taliban takeover, we continue the same conversations and engage with the same so-called Taliban officials about improving the situation in Afghanistan without demanding results from them," said US representative Jonathan Shrier.

"The United States will no longer enable their heinous behavior."

Russia officially became the first country to recognize the Taliban government last week.