Taliban Weaponising Justice Sector To Entrench Gender Persecution In Afghanistan: UN Expert
'Since the Taliban seized power in 2021, women and girls have been stripped of their fundamental rights, and support networks have either collapsed or been forced underground,' said Richard Bennett, Special Rapporteur on the human rights situation in Afghanistan in his latest report which examines access to justice and protection for women and girls.
'The Taliban is instrumentalising the legal and justice sectors in Afghanistan as part of their efforts to entrench the group's institutionalised system of gender oppression, persecution and domination,' Bennett said.
The expert warned that Taliban policies of persecution – which amount to crimes against humanity – have created an environment of abuse against women and girls that – despite great efforts of Afghans – is almost impossible to challenge on the ground, effectively blocking access to justice and protection in the country.
'Women and girls face such immense barriers to access justice and protection that the only reasonable conclusion is that the system is designed to enforce and sustain the Taliban's repressive and misogynistic ideology,' Bennett said.
While all Afghan women and girls suffer under Taliban policies, the Special Rapporteur stressed that the situation is exacerbated for women and girls in remote and rural parts of the country, or with intersecting identities, particularly those from minority and marginalised backgrounds.
Bennett welcomed efforts by the International Criminal Court and a group of Member States to hold Taliban leadership to account for violations and crimes under international law.
'But much more needs to be done. Member States of the Council must acknowledge and respond to the demands of Afghans to establish an additional, complementary international mechanism to support existing efforts to hold the Taliban to account.
'Justice and protection in Afghanistan must be understood not only as legal accountability, but also as the restoration of rights, the recovery of access to essential services, and the creation of conditions in which women, girls, and all Afghans can live with dignity and self-determination,' the expert added.
He called for a principled and human rights centred 'all tools' approach, a range of interventions which together form more than the sum of their parts, including centering women's rights and voices in all discussions and strategies on Afghanistan, supporting Afghan-led civil society groups, strengthening efforts to ensure accountability though international mechanisms, and prioritising economic and social rights as a vehicle for increased access to justice and protection.
'Such an approach responds to the demands of Afghan women and girls and maximises pathways and potential for the emergence of a safe, stable and inclusive Afghanistan. Until then, any normalisation of the de facto authorities would be premature,' Bennett said.
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