The Taliban’s leaders could face arrest for enacting repressive policies against girls and women in Afghanistan, the International Criminal Court’s chief prosecutor said on Thursday.
Karim Khan said he had asked the ICC to approve arrest warrants for the group’s supreme leader Hibatullah Akhundzada and Supreme Court head Abdul Hakim Haqqani who have been accused of crimes against humanity for gender-based persecution.
If issued, the warrants would be the first international acknowledgment of the Taliban’s persecution of Afghan women.
"These applications recognise that Afghan women and girls as well as the LGBTQI+ community are facing an unprecedented, unconscionable and ongoing persecution by the Taliban," Mr Khan said. The ICC would be considering attacks on the LGBTQ+ community as a crime against humanity for the first time in its history.
“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 to their ideological expectations of gender identity or expression, and persons whom the Taliban perceived as allies of girls and women,” Mr Khan said in a statement on Thursday, referring to the Taliban leaders.
Such persecution by the Taliban leaders was “committed from at least 15 August 2021 until the present day across the territory of Afghanistan”.
The Taliban have barred girls and women from school beyond sixth grade, colleges, universities as well as most public spaces. In December, an edict issued by Akhundzada banned buildings from having windows and any exterior places from where a woman could be seen from the outside.
The Islamist group, which seized power in Afghanistan over three years ago after the collapse of the Nato-backed government, has invoked its interpretation of the Islamic law to impose harsh diktats against nearly 20 million Afghan women.
Mr Khan said his office would not allow the Sharia law to be weaponised for violations of human rights. “My office further submits that the Taliban’s interpretation of Sharia should not and may not be used to justify the deprivation of fundamental human rights or the related commission of Rome Statute crimes,” he said.
The Taliban have not reacted to Mr Khan’s statement. The Independent has contacted Taliban spokesperson Zabiullah Mujahid for a comment.
Human rights groups welcomed the ICC prosecutor’s move against the Taliban leadership.
"Their systematic violations of women and girls’ rights, including education bans, and the suppression of those speaking up for women’s rights, have accelerated with complete impunity. With no justice in sight in Afghanistan, the warrant requests offer an essential pathway to a measure of accountability," said Liz Evenson, international justice director at Human Rights Watch.
While there is no deadline for the ICC to rule on the prosecutor’s request for a warrant, the decision typically takes around four months. If issued, the Taliban leaders named in the warrant could be arrested if they step foot in an ICC member nation.
It took a pre-trial ICC chamber three weeks to issue an arrest warrant for Russian president Vladimir Putin in 2023 but six months in the case of Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu last year.
