The International Criminal Court’s primary district attorney on Thursday stated he was looking for apprehension warrants versus elderly Taliban leaders in Afghanistan over the mistreatment of females, a criminal offense versus mankind.
Karim Khan stated there were sensible premises to think that Supreme Leader Haibatullah Akhundzada and primary justice Abdul Hakim Haqqani “bear criminal responsibility for the crime against humanity of persecution on gender grounds”.
Khan stated that Afghan females and ladies, along with the LGBTQ neighborhood, were encountering “an unprecedented, unconscionable and ongoing persecution by the Taliban.
“Our activity signals that the status for females and ladies in Afghanistan is not appropriate,” added Khan.
ICC judges will now consider Khan’s application before deciding whether to issue the warrants — a process that could take weeks or even months.
The court, based in The Hague, was set up to rule on the world’s worst crimes, such as war crimes and crimes against humanity.
It has no police force of its own and relies on its 125 member states to carry out its warrants — with mixed results.
In theory this means that anyone subject to an ICC arrest warrant cannot travel to a member state for fear of being detained.
Khan warned he would soon be seeking additional applications for other Taliban officials.
– ‘A victory’ –
Akhundzada inherited the Taliban leadership in May 2016 after a US drone strike in Pakistan killed his predecessor.
Believed to be in his 60s or 70s, the reclusive supreme leader rules by decree from the Taliban movement’s birthplace in southern Kandahar.
Haqqani was a close associate of Taliban founder Mullah Omar and served as a negotiator during discussions with US representatives in 2020.
ICC prosecutor Khan argued the Taliban was ” extremely” repressing resistance through crimes ” consisting of murder, jail time, abuse, rape and various other types of sex-related physical violence, implemented loss, and various other savage acts”.
Human Rights Watch (HRW) said in a statement the prosecutor’s actions should put the Taliban’s exclusion of women and girls from public life back on the international agenda.
“This is a crucial minute for Afghan females and ladies that have actually been waiting a lot also wish for justice,” HRW’s women’s rights deputy director, Heather Barr, told AFP, calling for ” various other initiatives to hold the Taliban completely answerable”.
The move was praised by Afghan women activists, including Shukria Barakzai, an Afghan former lawmaker and the ousted government’s ex-ambassador to Norway.
“It’s a success,” she told AFP from London.
“This likewise can be counted as (an) crucial accomplishment for feminism around the world … and especially for females in Afghanistan.”
The UN special rapporteur for human rights in Afghanistan, Richard Bennett, called the move ” a vital action … for responsibility in Afghanistan” on X.
– ‘Gender apartheid’ –
After sweeping back to power in August 2021, the Taliban authorities pledged a softer rule than their first rein from 1996-2001. But they quickly imposed restrictions on women and girls that the United Nations has labelled ” sex racism”.
Edicts in line with their interpretation of Islamic law have squeezed women and girls from public life.
They have barred girls from secondary school and women from university, making Afghanistan the only country in the world to impose such bans.
Taliban 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 at 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 merit” law announced last summer ordered women not to sing or recite poetry in public and for their voices and bodies to be ” hid” outside the home.
The couple of continuing to be females television speakers use limited headscarves and encounter masks in accordance with a 2022 diktat by Akhundzada that females cover whatever however their eyes and hands in public.
The worldwide neighborhood has actually condemned the limitations, which continue to be a crucial sticking factor in the Taliban authorities’ quest of main acknowledgment, which it has actually not gotten from any type of state.
The Taliban authorities have actually disregarded worldwide objection of their plans, stating all residents’ legal rights are offered under Islamic regulation.
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