&imwidth=800&imheight=600&format=webp&quality=medium "ICC issues arrest warrants for top Taliban leaders over persecution of women in Afghanistan")
The International Criminal Court (ICC) announced on Tuesday that it has issued arrest warrants for the Taliban’s supreme leader, Hibatullah Akhundzada, and Afghanistan’s chief judge, Abdul Hakim Haqqani, on the charges of orchestrating persecution of women and girls since the Taliban seized back power nearly four years ago. In a significant development, the ICC charged the two top Taliban leaders with crimes against humanity, alleging that their policies systematically stripped women and girls of their basic rights, education, and freedom of movement.
The court also cited targeted persecution of individuals who defied Taliban’s policy on gender roles, gender identity or expression, as well as political repression of those perceived to be supporting women’s rights.
This is the first time the ICC has taken direct legal action against the Taliban leaders for gender-based persecution, adding further international pressure on the regime in Kabul.
‘Taliban systematically dismantled women’s rights’
Since retaking control in August 2021, the Taliban have systematically dismantled women’s rights in Afghanistan, barring girls from education after sixth grade, ordering closure of beauty salons, excluding women from workplaces, and restricting their movement without a male guardian. Women must veil their bodies and wear a face covering at all times in public and are forbidden from looking at men they are not related to.
“Specifically, the Taliban severely deprived, through decrees and edicts, girls and women of the rights to education, privacy, and family life and the freedoms of movement, expression, thought, conscience, and religion,” it continued.
The ICC, 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 member states to carry out its arrest 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.
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The ICC is the only permanent international criminal tribunal in existence. The decision to issue the arrest warrants came some six months after the chief prosecutor applied for them.
