ICC seeks arrest of Taliban leaders over persecution of women
Judges said there were "reasonable grounds" to suspect Taliban Supreme Leader Hibatullah Akhundzada and chief justice Abdul Hakim Haqqani of committing gender-based persecution.
"While the Taliban have imposed certain rules and prohibitions on the population as a whole, they have specifically targeted girls and women by reason of their gender, depriving them of fundamental rights and freedoms," the court said in a statement.
The Taliban had "severely deprived" girls and women of the rights to education, privacy and family life and the freedoms of movement, expression, thought, conscience and religion, ICC judges said.
"In addition, other persons were targeted because certain expressions of sexuality and/or gender identity were regarded as inconsistent with the Taliban's policy on gender."
The court said the alleged crimes had been committed between August 15, 2021, when the Taliban seized power, and continued until at least January 20, 2025.
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 member states to carry out its arrest warrants -- with mixed results.
In theory, this means anyone subject to an ICC arrest warrant cannot travel to a member state for fear of being detained.
- 'Ongoing persecution' -
After sweeping back to power in August 2021, the Taliban authorities pledged a softer rule than their first stint in power from 1996 to 2001.
But they quickly imposed restrictions on women and girls that the United Nations has labelled "gender apartheid".
Edicts in line with their interpretation of Islamic law handed down by Akhundzada, who rules by decree from the movement's birthplace in southern Kandahar, have squeezed women and girls from public life.
The Taliban government barred girls from secondary school and women from university in the first 18 months after they ousted the US-backed government, making Afghanistan the only country in the world to impose such bans.
Authorities imposed restrictions on women working for non-governmental groups and other employment, with thousands of women losing government jobs -- or being paid to stay home.
Beauty salons have been closed and women blocked from visiting public parks, gyms and baths as well as travelling long distances without a male chaperone.
A "vice and virtue" law announced last summer ordered women not to sing or recite poetry in public and for their voices and bodies to be "concealed" outside the home.
When requesting the arrest warrants in January, chief prosecutor Karim Khan said Afghan women and girls, as well as the LGBTQ community, were facing "an unprecedented, unconscionable and ongoing persecution by the Taliban".
"Our action signals that the status quo for women and girls in Afghanistan is not acceptable," he added.
Khan warned at the time he would soon be seeking additional warrants for other Taliban officials.
ric/srg/jhb
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
ABC News
20 minutes ago
- ABC News
China's carbon emissions may have peaked thanks to renewables push
Climate experts say China's carbon emissions may have peaked, which could affect global climate targets, the fight against global warming — and the Australian coal industry. China is currently the world's biggest emitter, accounting for some 30 per cent of global carbon emissions, but a report by the Center for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA) found that in the year to May 2025, China's CO2 emissions dropped 1.6 per cent. China policy expert at CREA Belinda Schäpe said the trend had also continued in the months since. Ms Schäpe told the ABC the finding was "really unique" because the only other times the country had recorded a year-on-year decline in CO2 emissions were during times of economic downturn, like the COVID-19 pandemic. "It's really quite a historic result," Ms Schäpe said. "It's due to a really rapid increase in renewables build-out in China that has translated into an increase in power generation coming from clean sources and driving down the coal share in the power mix, and with that, bringing down emissions." She said China led the world in green energy uptake. "In May [2025] alone, China built out 90 gigawatts of solar capacity, which is really huge. It translates to roughly 100 solar panels per second. "We are now at a point where solar and wind capacity is actually bigger than all thermal power capacity. So not only coal, but also including gas, oil and other fossil fuel sectors." Li Shuo, director of the China climate hub at the Asia Society Policy Institute, told the ABC he thought that despite previous emissions fluctuations, the country would continue to reduce its carbon output. "It certainly suggests that after three decades of very rapid economic growth, and also growth in China's emissions, the emission peak point for China has come very close, if it has not happened already," Mr Li said. "We have certainly entered into, if not yet an emission peak, a plateauing period for China's emissions. "We have entered a new phase of China's emissions, a phase that features a stabilisation of China's emissions and increasingly large-scale integration of China's renewable energy power, which, I hope, will actually make the country reduce its emissions from this point on." If the world is to keep global warming below 1.5 degrees Celsius, the amount of emissions released into the atmosphere needs to come down, not stabilise, according to the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). Climate experts say a failure to limit global warming below that figure will result in catastrophic consequences for people and the planet. Despite the rapid installation of renewable energy plants across the country, China is still building new coal-fired power plants. Beijing approved on average two coal-powered projects a week in 2022 and 2023, after power shortages in 2021. Belinda Schäpe said a backlog of these projects was now coming online, but they were using less coal. "There's been a significant drop in coal imports … in June, there was a 25 per cent year-on-year drop in coal imports," she said. "In June, China's power demand growth was actually 70 per cent higher than last year this time around, but solar and wind power generation met 89 per cent of that power demand growth. "That's what we've been seeing over the last six months, really, where renewables, or solar and wind in particular, accounted for 24 per cent of total electricity generation. Chinese President Xi Jinping has pledged to continue phasing down the country's coal consumption in the next five years, between 2026 and 2030. Jorrit Gosens, a climate change and energy policy fellow at the Australian National University, said Australia needed to rethink the future of coal mines. "The writing is on the wall a little bit in the future economic potential of that industry," he said. China imports roughly 30 per cent of Australian thermal coal exports, making it Australia's largest market. Dr Gosens said China's increasing wind and solar power generation, combined with increasing domestic supplies of coal, created a "double whammy" for Australian coal exports. "It should be expected that those export volumes will continue to decrease over the next few years." Other Asian markets of Australian coal, such as South Korea and Japan, would follow suit as they decarbonised, he said. Dr Gosens pointed to the Mt Arthur coal mine in NSW, for which BHP could not find a buyer because of the shrinking demand of coal and its liabilities, like rehabilitation costs. He said local community leaders and the federal government needed to transition communities historically reliant on coal mines into other industries. "Currently, we're still seeing more resistance to change than embracing of that transition, which I think is a risky strategy given the demand for our product is not going to be determined by those local communities or by the federal government," he said. "Our best bet really is to make sure that there are viable alternatives for when it does get to that point." US President Donald Trump's policy agenda has seen green energy subsidies replaced with coal subsidies. Li Shou said it was clear that the two countries were now on different paths. He said some conservative forces within China may use the US's withdrawal from clean energy as motivation "for domestic inaction", but he was confident that it would not change the country's policy direction. "China has over the last decade or so become the superpower when it comes to wind technology — deploying and manufacturing wind, solar batteries and electric vehicles," he said. "This will not change because of what is happening or not happening in the US and if anything, Beijing will just continue with this green path because doing these things is ultimately in the country's long-term economic interest. "There has been a realisation on the Chinese side that they should continue and double down on their climate and environmental agenda, not because of the global situation and the US situation, but just for their own sake, to clean up the skies in major Chinese cities." China is set to announce its new climate reduction targets as part of the Paris agreement later this year. He said that would tell the world a lot about where the global appetite to reduce emissions was at. "Whether China chooses to coordinate with some of the other geopolitical powers will also tell us a lot about where the global climate agenda stands and to what extent countries, including China and Australia and the European Union, can still engage," Mr Li said.
SBS Australia
7 hours ago
- SBS Australia
Four Aussie residents, including two citizens, now facing Hong Kong arrest warrants, bounties
Four Australian residents are now facing overseas arrest warrants issued by Hong Kong's national security police, after a fresh announcement concerning support for a pro-democracy party in the state's parliament. Australian citizen Chongyi Feng and resident Wong Sau-Wo are accused of having launched a referendum or run as candidates in the unofficial "Hong Kong Parliament" group. They are among 19 activists who are are accused of organising or participating in the group that authorities in the Asian financial hub say aims at achieving self-determination and drafting a "Hong Kong constitution". Authorities say the group aims to subvert state power, under the law Beijing imposed in 2020 following months of pro-democracy protests in 2019. There is a bounty of at least HK$200,000 ($38,807) for each of the activists. Yam, who is a legal scholar, and Hui, a former Hong Kong Democracy party MP, were among eight overseas-based activists who authorities accused of national security offences, including foreign collusion and incitement to secession. At the time, the police also offered rewards of HK$1 million ($194,000) for information leading to each possible arrest. Foreign Minister Penny Wong has reacted to the announcement, saying "Australia strongly objects to Hong Kong authorities issuing arrest warrants for pro-democracy advocates in Australia." "Freedom of expression and assembly are essential to our democracy," she wrote on social media platform X on Saturday "We have consistently expressed our strong objections to China and Hong Kong on the broad and extraterritorial application of Hong Kong's national security legislation, and we will continue to do so." SBS News has reached out to the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade for comment. Hong Kong's national security law Feng has told SBS News that, while he feels safe being in Australia, the federal government must remain cautious in its interactions with China. "So we need to be fully aware of the nature of (China's) authoritarian regime when dealing with Xi Jinping or the People's Republic of China." He says many of his friends in Hong Kong have been jailed due to the state's national security law, which makes perceived political subversion a serious offence. Critics of the national security law say authorities are using it to stifle dissent. Chinese and Hong Kong officials have repeatedly said the law was vital to restore stability after the city was rocked for months by sometimes violent anti-government and anti-China protests in 2019. "I feel quite sad that the autonomy of Hong Kong, of basic human rights in Hong Kong, and democracy in Hong Kong have all been destroyed by the implementation of the national security law," Feng said. Police reiterated that national security offences were serious crimes with extraterritorial reach and urged the wanted individuals to return to Hong Kong and turn themselves in. "If offenders voluntarily give up continuing to violate the crime, turn themselves in, truthfully confess their crimes, or provide key information that helps solve other cases, they may be eligible for reduced punishment," they said in a statement. Police also warned that aiding, abetting, or funding others to participate in the "Hong Kong Parliament" could be a criminal offence. Additional reporting by Wing Kuang and the Reuters News Agency.
ABC News
13 hours ago
- ABC News
US drops sanctions on Myanmar junta's allies after military chief praises Donald Trump
The United States has lifted sanctions on several allies of Myanmar's ruling generals and their military-linked companies in a move that has prompted concern from politicians and rights groups. Junta chief Min Aung Hlaing seized power in a 2021 coup, deposing the civilian government and sparking a civil war that has killed thousands, displaced 3.5 million left and half the nation in poverty. The US Treasury announcement it would lift the sanctions came two weeks after Min Aung Hlaing sent a glowing letter of praise to US President Donald Trump, in response to his threat of tariffs, and commended him for shutting down US-funded media outlets covering the conflict. Rights groups say the decision risks undermining efforts to hold the country's military regime accountable. The US Treasury said it had dropped sanctions against KT Services & Logistics and its founder, Jonathan Myo Kyaw Thaung, who were sanctioned in 2022 for leasing Yangon's port from a military-owned firm. Others delisted include the Myanmar Chemical and Machinery Company and Suntac Technologies, which were previously sanctioned for producing arms, including tanks and mortars. A US Treasury spokesperson said the removals were conducted "in the ordinary course of business" and declined to explain why the individuals were removed from the list. A senior Trump administration official said the decision was unrelated to the general's letter. John Sifton, Asia advocacy director at Human Rights Watch, described the decision as "extremely worrying" and said it suggested a weakening of the US sanctions regime. "The individuals involved are not marginal players; they have facilitated the junta's arms imports from countries such as China and Russia," analyst Sean Turnell told the ABC. "These are people who are closely tied to Myanmar's war economy. "Lifting sanctions on them sends the wrong message." The sanctions decision comes as Myanmar's military continues deadly air strikes against civilians. In May, a junta air strike on a school in Sagaing region killed 20 students and two teachers, according to local witnesses. The strike was carried out despite a purported humanitarian ceasefire called to help the nation recover from a devastating earthquake. In July, more than 20 civilians, including children, were reportedly killed in another air strike on a monastery sheltering displaced people. Amnesty International data has shown that the military has continued importing aviation fuel despite sanctions, enabling lethal air strikes across the country. This year, the junta's China and Russia-backed forces have clawed back ground on the northern front. State media also said its soldiers managed "to fully retake" the gold mining town of Thabeikkyin this week. Early this month, as part of a slate of import tariffs Mr Trump ordered, Myanmar was notified of a 40 per cent tariff to take effect on August 1. On July 11, Min Aung Hlaing responded by proposing a reduced rate of 10 per cent to 20 per cent. US Democratic Representative Ami Bera, the top Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Asia, said the decision to lift the sanctions "goes against our values of freedom and democracy". However, White House spokeswoman Anna Kelly said that sanctions delistings "were collected over the last year in accordance with standard Treasury course of business". The US maintains sanctions against Min Aung Hlaing and two state-owned banks, the Myanma Foreign Trade Bank (MFTB) and Myanma Investment and Commercial Bank (MICB). Mr Turnell said it was important to keep individuals and banks involved in the military's procurement network on the sanctions list as it could complicate efforts to restrict the regime's access to foreign currency, which remains critical for weapons purchases. "Even Myanmar's allies, such as Russia and China, insist on payment in dollars or euros," Mr Turnell said. "That makes financial sanctions one of the most effective levers the US still holds." ABC/wires
