The Attorney General of the United Nations International Criminal Court announced Thursday that he was seeking arrest warrants against the two highest leaders of the The Taliban regime in power in Afghanistan for crimes against humanity because of the group treatment of women and girls.
Prosecutor Karim Khan said that after a thorough investigation and review of evidence, his office found “reasonable grounds to believe” that Taliban supreme leader Haibatullah Akhundzada and the group’s chief justice Abdul Hakim Haqqani carry “the criminal responsibility for the crime against humanity of persecution based on sex.” grounds,” under the treaty that founded the ICC, known as the Rome Statute.
Khan said his office concluded that the two men were “criminally responsible for the persecution of Afghan girls and women, as well as people whom the Taliban viewed as nonconforming to their ideological expectations of identity or expression.” gender, and people the Taliban considered allies of girls and women. »
The statement said the alleged crimes were committed between “at least” since the Taliban’s resumption of control of Afghanistan in August 2021 “until the present day”, across the country.
“This continued persecution results in numerous serious deprivations of the victims’ fundamental rights, contrary to international law, in particular the right to physical integrity and autonomy, to free movement and free expression, to education, to private and family life and free assembly. » said Khan.
There was no immediate reaction to Khan’s request from Taliban leaders.
From regain control of Afghanistanthe Taliban have imposed a long list of harsh laws targeting women and girls. These measures led to the exclusion of women from public life and sparked condemnation from much of the international community, including allegations of sexist apartheid.
Under the pretext of Islamic Sharia law, these measures deprived girls and women of formal education from the age of 12, of the right to visit public parks or to travel alone, or even to see a doctor unless required. be accompanied by a male chaperone.
Last month, the Taliban banned women from training to become midwives and nurses – another devastating blow in a country that already has one of the highest maternal mortality rates in the world. According to World Bank data, 620 women die for every 100,000 live births in Afghanistan due to pregnancy-related complications.
Akhundzada recently ordered that windows of houses overlooking spaces used by women, such as kitchens, courtyards or water wells, be covered.
Elizabeth Evenson, director of the international justice program at the New York-based organization
Human Rights Watch said in a statement Thursday that it hoped the ICC’s request for arrest warrants against senior Taliban officials would put “the systematic exclusion of women and girls from the public life and the targeting of LGBT people” by the group.
Evenson said the Taliban’s gender-based repression has “accelerated with impunity” since the summer of 2021, and that “with no justice in sight in Afghanistan, the mandate requests provide a critical path to some measure of accountability.”
She also called on the ICC prosecutor to reverse his decision “to prioritize investigations into abuses committed by former Afghan government forces and US personnel” who had been based in the country for two decades. The investigation into the actions of American troops was launched by Khan’s predecessor.
Khan said the request for international arrest warrants highlights the ICC’s commitment to holding those responsible for gender-based crimes accountable, and that more arrests and arrest warrants against other senior Taliban officials should follow as the Court’s investigation into the situation in Afghanistan continues.
“Judges at the International Criminal Court will now determine whether these arrest warrant requests establish reasonable grounds to believe that the named individuals committed the alleged crimes. If the judges issue the arrest warrants, my Office will work closely with the Registrar in all efforts to arrest the individuals,” Khan said, adding that “as in all situations, I call on States parties to cooperate fully with the Court and to assist it in enforcing any judicial order.”
Although the ICC has the power to issue arrest warrants – and has done so recently for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahuthe country’s former defense chief and senior Hamas leader, has no means to independently enforce such mandates.
It depends on the signatory countries of the founding treaty of the Court. decide whether to detain individuals wanted under ICC arrest warrants as they enter the territories of these countries.
The United States is not a signatory to the Rome Statute and therefore is not obligated to detain anyone under an ICC arrest warrant.
Even if the ICC issues arrest warrants for Akhundzada or other Taliban leaders, it is highly unlikely that they would attempt to travel to a country where they risk arrest. Almost the entire world has refused to recognize the Taliban as the legitimate government of Afghanistan following their reassertion of control of the country.
Khan himself was accused of trying for more than a year to coerce an assistant into having sex and groping her against her will. He categorically denied the allegations, saying there was “no truth to the suggestions of misconduct.” ICC officials said the allegations may have been made as part of a smear campaign by Israeli intelligence services.