On Tuesday, the International Criminal Court (pictured in the Hague, Netherlands, in March) issued its arrest warrants for the Taliban’s supreme leader Haibatullah Akhundzada and chief justice, Abdul Hakim Haqqani, over crimes against humanity on girls, women and “other persons non-conforming with the Taliban’s policy on gender, gender identity or expression.” Photo By Robin Utrecht/EPA
The International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants Tuesday for two top Taliban officials over a plethora of allegations of crimes against women and young girls.
The court, based in the Hague, Netherlands, issued its international arrest warrants for the Taliban’s supreme leader Haibatullah Akhundzada and its chief justice, Abdul Hakim Haqqani, over “reasonable grounds” of crimes against humanity on girls, women and “other persons non-conforming with the Taliban’s policy on gender, gender identity or expression.”
ICC officials stated the alleged crimes were believed to be committed in Afghanistan from around the time the Taliban seized power until as late as January of this year.
According to the ICC, Akhundzada and Haggani held defect authority in Afghanistan starting at least August 2021.
It accused the two Taliban leaders of “severe” violations of fundamental rights and freedoms against the Afghan population.
Last week, Russia became the first nation to officially recognize Afghanistan’s extremist Taliban government.
The tribunal on Tuesday pointed to “conducts of murder, imprisonment, torture, rape and enforced disappearance.”
“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,” court officials wrote in a release.
It added that other individuals were “targeted” due to “certain expressions of sexuality and/or gender identity” thought to be inconsistent with the Taliban’s policy on gender.
“The Chamber found that gender persecution encompasses not only direct acts of violence, but also systemic and institutionalized forms of harm, including the imposition of discriminatory societal norms,” the ICC ruling continued.
In addition, the court also found that even people simply perceived to be in opposition to Taliban policies were targeted, which the court says included “political opponents” and “those described as ‘allies of girls and women.'”
The International Criminal Court, ratified in 2002 and created to try global cases of genocide, war crimes and other crimes against humanity, was the product of 50 years of United Nations efforts.
The court’s stated goal was to publicly disclose the two warrants existence in hopes that public awareness “may contribute to the prevention of the further commission of these crimes.”
However, the chamber opted to keep the warrants under seal to protect victim witnesses and future court proceedings.
