U.N. Prosecutor Seeks Arrest Warrant for Taliban Leader Over Women’s Persecution

The chief prosecutor for the International Criminal Court of the United Nations announced on Thursday that he would seek arrest warrants against the two senior Taliban leaders in Afghanistan for crimes committed against humanity, namely the treatment of girls and women by the group.

Karim Khan, the prosecutor, said that, after a thorough review of the evidence and an investigation, his office had “reasonable grounds” to believe that the Taliban Supreme Leader Haibatullah Akhundzada, and the Chief Justice of the group Abdul Hakim Haqqani, bear “criminal liability for the crime against mankind of persecuting women based on gender,” according to the Rome Statute, the treaty which founded the ICC.

Khan’s office concluded that both men were “criminally accountable for persecuting Afghan women and girls, as well as those whom the Taliban perceived to be not conforming to their ideological expectations regarding gender identity and expression and persons whom they perceived as allies of women and girls.”

The statement said the alleged crimes were committed between “at least” from the Taliban’s retaking of control over Afghanistan in August 2021 “until the present day,” all across the country.

Khan said: “This persecution is a constant violation of the fundamental rights of victims, in contravention to international law. This includes their right to autonomy and physical integrity, as well as to freedom of movement and expression, education, private and family lives, and the right to free assembly.”

Taliban leadership did not immediately respond to Khan’s demand.

Since regaining control in Afghanistan, the Taliban have imposed several harsh laws that target women and girls. Women have been pushed from public life by the Taliban’s measures, which have drawn criticism and accusations of gender-based discrimination.

The measures, under the pretext that they are based on Islamic Sharia Law, have denied girls and women formal education starting at the age of 12. They also deny them the right to travel, visit parks, or meet with doctors without a chaperone.

The Taliban banned women from training as midwives or nurses last month. This is another blow to a country with one of the highest rates of maternal mortality in the world. According to World Bank data, 620 women in Afghanistan die from pregnancy-related complications for every 100,000 births.

Akhundzada ordered recently that all windows overlooking areas used by women such as kitchens and courtyards be covered.

Elizabeth Evenson, International Justice Program Director at the New York-based.

Human Rights Watch said that in a Thursday statement, she hoped that the request for ICC warrants against senior Taliban figures would bring the “systematic exclusion and targeting of LGBT individuals and women from public life” back to the attention of the international community.

Evenson stated that the Taliban’s gender-based repression has “accelerated with total impunity” since summer 2021. “With no justice in Afghanistan in sight, the warrant requests provide an essential pathway for a measure to accountability.”

She also called for the ICC prosecutor “to reconsider his decision to deprioritize the investigation of abuses committed by former Afghan government forces and U.S. personnel”, who had been based in Afghanistan for 20 years. Khan’s predecessor launched the investigation into U.S. troop actions.

Khan said that the request for international warrants of arrest highlights the ICC’s commitment to hold those responsible for gender-based crime accountable. Khan also stated that more arrests and warrant fillings are expected as the court’s investigation into Afghanistan’s situation continues.

The judges of the International Criminal Court now will determine if these applications for warrants of arrest establish reasonable grounds to suspect that the named individuals have committed the alleged crime. My Office will work closely and in close coordination with the Registrar to arrest those individuals if the judges issue warrants,” Khan said. “As always, I ask States Parties to cooperate fully with the Court in any situation, helping it to enforce any judicial orders.”

The ICC can issue arrest warrants, and it has recently done so for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as well as the former Defense Chief of Israel and a Hamas senior leader. However, there are no means by which the ICC can enforce these warrants independently.

The decision to arrest wanted individuals on ICC warrants is up to each country that has signed the founding treaty of the court. This includes when these people enter their territory.

The United States does not sign the Rome Statute and therefore is not obligated by law to hold anyone in custody on an ICC warrant.

It is unlikely that Akhundzada, or any other Taliban leader for that matter, would attempt to travel to a country where they might be arrested. In the wake of the Taliban’s re-assertion of control, the world has largely refused to recognize them as Afghanistan’s legal government.

Khan has been accused of groping a female assistant against her will and coercing her into a relationship for over a year. He categorically denies the allegations and says that “no truth exists in suggestions of misconduct.” The ICC has said that the allegations may have been part of a smear effort by Israeli intelligence.