The International Criminal Court (ICC) issued a warrant for arrest of the Taliban Supreme Leader and president of the Afghan Supreme Court on Tuesday for allegations of persecuting women and girls since seizing power four years ago.
The warrant also accuses leaders of persecuting “others do not conform to the Taliban’s policies on gender, gender identity or expression; and against those considered “allies of girls and women” on political grounds.”
The warrants were issued against the Taliban Supreme Leader Hibatullah Akhunzada and the Supreme Court Head Abdul Hakim Haqqani.
The court said in a statement that the Taliban “by decrees and decrees severely deprives the rights to education, privacy and family life as well as freedom of movement, expression, thought, conscience and religion. In addition, others are targeted because certain expressions of sexual and/or gender identity are considered inconsistent with the policies of Taliban taliban taliban taliban taliban.”
Afghanistan has been marked for a year under the Taliban rule. Despite the repressive regime’s anniversary celebration, the country now faces a humanitarian crisis, with millions of ordinary Afghans struggling to find food while women and girls are deprived of their fundamental rights.
The court’s chief prosecutor Karim Khan sought an arrest warrant in January, saying they recognized that “Afghan women and girls and LGBTQI+ communities are facing unprecedented, unrestricted and ongoing persecution from the Taliban.”
Human Rights Watch, a global advocacy group, is welcomed.
“The senior Taliban leaders are asked to men for alleged persecution of women, girls and gender-inconsistent persons. The international community should firmly support the International Criminal Court in its critical work in Afghanistan and globally, including through the unanimous efforts to enforce court warrants,” Liz Evenson, the group's international justice director, said in a statement.
