ICC prosecutor demands arrest of Taliban leaders for ‘atrocities against Afghan girls and women’
The top prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) says he will seek arrest warrants against senior leaders of the Taliban government in Afghanistan over abuses of 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 crimes against humanity based on gender.
The ICC judge will now decide whether an arrest warrant should be issued or not.
The ICC investigates and brings to justice those responsible for genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes, intervening when national authorities cannot or will not prosecute.
In a statement, Mr Khan said both men were “criminally responsible for oppressing the girls and women of Afghanistan, as well as those whom the Taliban deemed not to conform to its ideological expectations of gender identity or expression , and people whom the Taliban considered allies. girls and women”.
Opposition to the Taliban government is “brutally suppressed through crimes including murder, imprisonment, torture, rape and other forms of sexual violence, enforced disappearances and other inhumane acts”, he said.
The statement said the harassment took place across Afghanistan, from at least August 15, 2021, to today.
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 fighting against the Soviet military campaign in Afghanistan.
Haqqani was a close ally of Taliban founder Mullah Omar and served as a negotiator on the Taliban’s behalf during discussions with US representatives in 2020.
The Taliban government has not yet commented on the ICC statement.
The Taliban regained power in Afghanistan in 2021, 20 years after their regime was overthrown as a result of the US-led invasion following the 9/11 attacks in New York, but its government is not formally recognized by any other foreign power. Has been given.
Since then “morality laws” have meant women have lost dozens of rights in the country.
Afghanistan is now the only country in the world where women and girls are prevented from accessing secondary and higher education – approximately one and a half million people have been deliberately deprived of schooling.
The Taliban have repeatedly promised that they will be readmitted to school once a number of issues are resolved – including ensuring that the curriculum is “Islamic”. This is yet to happen.
Beauty salons have been closed and women have been prevented from entering public parks, gyms and bathrooms.
The dress code means they must be fully covered and strict rules ban them from traveling without a male chaperone or looking a man in the eye unless they are related by blood or marriage.
In December, Women were also banned from training as midwives and nurses.Which effectively closed his last avenue for further education in the country.
