The Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) announced on Thursday that he is seeking arrest warrants for senior Taliban leaders in Afghanistan accused of crimes against humanity, citing widespread persecution of the country's female population and its LGBTQI+ population. The request comes as Afghanistan continues to suffer from one of the world's largest human rights and humanitarian crises.
Karim Khan identified the suspects as Taliban supreme leader Hibatullah Akhundzada and his chief justice Abdul Hakim Haqqani, and said his action was based on a thorough investigation and evidence gathered in the process.
“My Office has concluded that these two Afghan nationals are criminally responsible for persecuting Afghan girls and women, as well as persons whom the Taliban perceived as not conforming with their ideological expectations of gender identity or expression, and persons whom the Taliban perceived as allies of girls and women,” Khan stated.
The Chief Prosecutor said both bear criminal responsibility for the crime against humanity of persecution on gender grounds. He noted that the persecution has been ongoing since August 2021, when the Taliban regained control of Afghanistan and imposed their strict interpretation of Islamic law, known as Sharia.
Khan also said that his Office had found that the Taliban had carried out this persecution in conjunction with other crimes under the Rome Statute of the ICC, including murder, imprisonment, torture, rape and other forms of sexual violence, enforced disappearance and other inhumane acts.
The extremist group, which calls itself the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, seized the Afghan capital, Kabul, on August 15, 2021, after successively capturing several provincial capitals and regions in early August of that year, as US-led international forces withdrew from the country after nearly 20 years of involvement in the Afghan war.
These are the first requests for ICC arrest warrants in Afghanistan. Khan said on Thursday, without elaborating, that his Office would soon file additional requests to arrest other senior Taliban members.
ICC judges must now review the applications before deciding whether to issue arrest warrants for Akhundzada and Haqqani. Experts say the process could take weeks or even months.
“These applications recognize that Afghan women and girls, as well as the LGBTQI+ community, are facing an unprecedented, unconscionable, and ongoing persecution by the Taliban,” Khan said.
“Our action signals that the status quo for women and girls in Afghanistan is not acceptable. Afghan survivors, in particular women and girls, deserve accountability before a court of law,” the Chief Prosecutor added.
“We remain unwavering in our commitment to ensure that they are not forgotten, and to demonstrate through our work, through the effective and impartial application of international law, that all lives have equal value.”
On Friday, a group of UN human rights experts issued a statement welcoming the Prosecutor's application to issue arrest warrants for Akhundzada and Haqqani.
“This is a critical step forward in the pursuit of justice for crimes against humanity committed against Afghans. It sends an important signal to the Taliban that members of its leadership are liable for committing international crimes, including gender persecution, and may face arrest and trial,” the experts said.
“Equally, the people of Afghanistan, especially women, girls, and the LGBTQI+ people now know that the International Criminal Court hears them and has begun to take concrete actions to achieve justice for them.”
Established in 2002 under the multilateral Rome Statute, the International Criminal Court is an intergovernmental organization and international court based in The Hague, the Netherlands. The ICC, which has 125 state parties, is independent but is supported by the UN General Assembly.
The ICC is the only permanent international court with jurisdiction to prosecute individuals for war crimes, crimes against humanity, genocide and the crime of aggression. The Office of the Prosecutor is an independent organ of the Court that conducts preliminary examinations and investigations and is the only person who can bring cases before the Court.
Akhundzada, who rules the country from the southern city of Kandahar, has issued numerous edicts over the past three and a half years imposing sweeping restrictions on Afghan women and girls that the United Nations has condemned as "gender apartheid."
The United Nations warned in December that women and girls are bearing the brunt of an ongoing "dangerous erosion" of human rights in Afghanistan, attributing the situation to a deliberate failure by the country's radical Taliban.
Since regaining control of Afghanistan in August 2021, Taliban leaders have systematically deprived women and girls of their basic rights, including the right to education, work, freedom of movement and expression, and the right to live free from violence.
According to rights groups, lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people in Afghanistan and others who do not conform to rigid gender norms (LGBTQI+ people) have faced mounting desperation and grave threats to their safety and lives since the new rulers took full control of the country.
The Taliban government is not officially recognized by any country, and the UN has repeatedly rejected requests by Afghanistan's de facto authorities to represent the country internationally because of its women's rights restrictions.
Girls are banned from education beyond the sixth grade, including attending institutions that train midwives and nurses. Most women are prohibited from working in either the public or private sector. They are barred from visiting public parks, gyms, and baths.
The Taliban have mandated that women cover their faces in public and cannot travel long distances without a male guardian, making Afghanistan the only country in the world to impose such prohibitions on women and girls.
The restrictions on women's human rights stem from dozens of decrees issued over the past three years by reclusive Taliban supreme leader, Akhundzada, based on his strict interpretation of Islamic law.
In December, the Afghan Ministry of Health abruptly ordered medical institutions across the country to stop enrolling female students, citing a new edict issued by Akhundzada. The move effectively shut down one of the last available avenues for girls to pursue higher education.
In response, independent UN-appointed experts warned that Afghanistan's maternal and child health is already in crisis, with high rates of maternal and infant mortality. If implemented, the ban would exacerbate this crisis, with profound and long-lasting consequences.
The United Nations and global rights groups have condemned the bans and called on the Taliban to reverse their policies against women, which have been a key sticking point in the Afghan de facto authorities' quest for official recognition of their government in Kabul.
The Taliban have fiercely defended their rule, saying their policies are in line with Sharia law and Afghan culture. Taliban leaders say all Afghan citizens' rights are provided for under Islamic law.
The United Nations has urged the Taliban de facto authorities to embrace global human rights obligations as key to the protection and prosperity of current and future generations of women, men, girls and boys throughout the country.
Meanwhile, millions of Afghans continue to struggle in one of the world's largest, most neglected and complex humanitarian crises. The United Nations estimates that 22.9 million people - including 12.3 million children - will need humanitarian assistance and protection in 2025.
The UN has previously warned that the latest ban on women would exacerbate the deepening humanitarian crisis and health challenges facing poverty-stricken Afghanistan, which is reeling from years of war and natural disasters. The world body says laws and regulations implemented by the de facto authorities are obstructing - but not yet completely preventing - the delivery of humanitarian aid.
Restrictions by the de facto authorities - including the December 2022 and April 2023 directives banning Afghan women from working for non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and UN agencies - continue to hamper aid operations throughout the country and limit women's and girls' access to humanitarian assistance.
Nearly three and a half years after the fall of Kabul, Afghanistan remains one of the world's worst humanitarian crises. The cumulative effects of poverty, violent conflict and internal displacement have dramatically exacerbated humanitarian needs throughout Afghanistan.
Prone to natural disasters such as drought, floods and earthquakes, Afghanistan regularly suffers from extreme weather events and environmental disasters. Seasonal and climate-related shocks further aggravate humanitarian needs across Afghanistan, compounding already precarious living conditions.
At least one-third of Afghans continue to suffer from hunger. According to the most recent IPC food security analysis, more than 14.8 million people in Afghanistan are acutely food insecure, including 3.1 million people at emergency levels of food insecurity.
Nearly 3.5 million children under five are suffering or projected to suffer from acute malnutrition and require urgent assistance. This includes approximately 867,000 cases of severe acute malnutrition (SAM) and nearly 2.6 million cases of moderate acute malnutrition (MAM). In addition, 1.2 million pregnant and breastfeeding women are estimated to suffer from acute malnutrition.
Some information for this report provided by VOA.
Further information
Full text: Statement of ICC Prosecutor Karim A.A. Khan KC: Applications for arrest warrants in the situation in Afghanistan, ICC Office of the Prosecutor, statement, released January 23, 2025
https://www.icc-cpi.int/news/statement-icc-prosecutor-karim-aa-khan-kc-applications-arrest-warrants-situation-afghanistan