UNITED NATIONS — 9 nations, together with France and UK, in a joint assertion forward of the UNSC assembly on Monday expressed help for an Worldwide Felony Court docket (ICC) prosecutor’s request to problem arrest warrants for Taliban chief Hibatullah Akhundzada and the Taliban’s chief justice, Abdul Hakim Haqqani, citing systematic gender-based persecution in Afghanistan.
Of their joint assertion, the governments of France, Denmark, Greece, Guyana, Panama, South Korea, Sierra Leone, Slovenia, and the UK condemned what they described because the Taliban’s “ongoing and systematic gender-based discrimination towards ladies.”
The assertion emphasised that Afghan ladies and women have been successfully erased from public life underneath Taliban rule.
“The Taliban have issued greater than 80 decrees and directives particularly concentrating on the autonomy, rights, and day by day lives of girls and women,” the nations mentioned.
The 9 nations mentioned the Taliban have institutionalized a system of discrimination, harassment, and gender-based oppression. They pointed to insurance policies such because the enforcement of PVPV legislation—the so-called morality code—together with bans on feminine schooling in medical establishments and restrictions on ladies working for the United Nations and NGOs.
“We welcome measures to carry the Taliban accountable for the widespread and systematic violations of girls’s and women’ human rights,” the assertion learn. “Amongst different initiatives, we recall the ICC prosecutor’s request for arrest warrants towards two senior Taliban leaders and the dedication to pursue accountability for gender-based crimes, together with sexual violence and persecution.”
Name for ladies’s inclusion in Afghanistan’s future
The nations reaffirmed that girls in Afghanistan should play a central position within the nation’s future, warning that their exclusion threatens long-term stability and improvement. They underscored that U.N. Safety Council resolutions—notably 2593 (2021) and 2681 (2023)—have made it clear that girls’s full and equal participation is important for peace and prosperity in Afghanistan.
“We name for the complete participation of Afghan ladies and women within the nation’s future and in all efforts to keep up and promote peace and safety,” the assertion mentioned.
Additionally they burdened that this inclusion should prolong to diplomatic efforts, together with the U.N.-led Doha course of and up to date initiatives such because the Central Asian Girls Leaders’ Caucus.
The signatory nations reiterated their help for the United Nations Help Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) and different U.N. companies working within the nation. They urged all U.N. our bodies to undertake a coordinated strategy to defending Afghan ladies’s rights and known as for the complete extension of UNAMA’s mandate.
“We reaffirm our help for the continued presence of UNAMA and different U.N. companies, funds, and applications throughout Afghanistan in help of the Afghan folks, notably ladies and women,” the assertion learn.
The assertion follows an ICC prosecutor’s latest request for arrest warrants towards Akhundzada and Haqqani on costs of “gender persecution and crimes towards humanity.”
