A popular court in Madrid presents evidence of gender-based repression under their regime
The Afghan NGO DROPS calls for the restoration of fundamental rights before normalizing relations with the fundamentalists
The authorities installed by the Taliban after taking control of Afghanistan in August 2021 have diminished the rights of women and girls in the Central Asian country by imposing numerous restrictions on their rights and freedoms, including their exclusion from public life, due to the implementation of their rigorous version of Islam, which has placed them as the main victims of “institutionalized oppression.”
The wave of directives imposed by the fundamentalists have stripped women and girls of their rights and dignity. “With each restriction, they are increasingly excluded from public life, and closer to being eliminated altogether,” UN Women denounced on the fourth anniversary of its coming to power.
“These restrictions are not temporary; none have been reversed. The most serious women’s rights crisis in the world is becoming normal,” it warned, recalling that the situation of women’s rights in Afghanistan has made the country the second with the largest gender gap in the world, surpassed only by Yemen.
ONGOING PROCEEDINGS FOR HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS
Through decrees, they have been deprived of their rights to education, privacy, and family life, as well as freedom of movement, expression, thought, conscience, and religion. “Other people have been targeted because certain expressions of sexuality or gender identity are considered incompatible with the Taliban’s gender policy,” said the International Criminal Court (ICC) when it issued arrest warrants against Taliban leaders in July for crimes against humanity committed against women.
For its part, the United Nations Human Rights Council this week approved a resolution presented by Denmark on behalf of the European Union for the creation of an independent commission to gather evidence on violations of international law in Afghanistan.
The UN Special Envoy for Human Rights in Afghanistan, Richard Bennet, who is banned from entering the country for “spreading propaganda” against the authorities, said the establishment of this new mechanism “marks an important milestone in the search for truth, justice, and accountability for the Afghan people.” “This decision is a testament to the courage and perseverance of the victims, survivors, and Afghan civil society, whose tireless advocacy has made this moment possible,” he applauded.
HEARINGS IN MADRID TO COLLECT EVIDENCE
Furthermore, the Permanent People’s Tribunal (PPT)—created in 1979 at the initiative of civil society—has held several sessions in Madrid to denounce key Taliban leaders for the persecution of women and girls in Afghanistan. The initiative, promoted by four Afghan civil society organizations, hopes that the findings, which are not legally binding, will serve as a basis for future proceedings.
This people’s tribunal has heard testimony from Afghan women, human rights defenders, and experts, who have documented various abuses by the fundamentalists since 2021, including enforced disappearances, gender-based persecution, and torture. Its goal is to create a public legal record of “institutionalized oppression.”
Mariam Safi, director of the Afghan NGO Development Research Organization for Policy and Studies (DROPS), explained that after four years of work, they realized that, despite “some achievements” such as the ICC arrest warrants, “these processes, which are very important, are very long-term.” “They take years and years. And, in Afghanistan, the Taliban are announcing greater restrictions (…) and we felt we had to do something.”
“The goal of the tribunal is to raise awareness, hold the Taliban accountable, and break the cycle of impunity. The people’s tribunal is symbolic, we know that. But the evidence collected and presented over these three days constitutes an incredible body of evidence and documentation that will help (…) all existing mechanisms,” she explained in statements to Europa Press.
She also argued that another of her goals was to “strengthen” their advocacy work as activists through creativity and new approaches, since “for the past four and a half years, the international community has ignored the situation in Afghanistan,” despite “sparing no effort” that, she lamented, “were leading nowhere.”
