Kabul: Coinciding with International Women’s Day, Human Rights Watch (HRW) has urged the international community to hold the Taliban accountable for their continued violations of human rights, particularly those of women and girls.
In a statement released on March 7, HRW praised Afghan women for their resilience and ongoing struggle against the severe restrictions imposed by the Taliban. Despite facing harsh repression, Afghan women continue to fight for their fundamental rights.
Sahar Fetrat, a researcher at HRW, highlighted the immense risks Afghan women have taken in advocating for their rights in a country where such activism often leads to punishment and torture.
Over the past three years, several countries and international legal bodies have taken steps toward holding the Taliban accountable. However, HRW argues that these efforts have been insufficient.
Fetrat referenced legal action initiated by Australia, Canada, Germany, and the Netherlands to bring the Taliban before the International Court of Justice (ICJ). The initiative, announced in September 2024 in New York, could potentially lead to formal hearings in The Hague. Prior to this, 20 countries had expressed their support for legal action against the Taliban’s treatment of women and girls.
HRW emphasized that Afghan women have continued their struggle for freedom despite facing extreme repression under Taliban rule. The organization called on the international community and legal institutions to advance the judicial process and hold the Taliban accountable, urging decisive action to put an end to the group's oppressive policies.
The statement from HRW comes as Volker Türk, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, also condemned the Taliban’s discriminatory policies. Speaking on March 3 before the UN Human Rights Council, Türk described Afghanistan as a country where gender-based discrimination is systematically enforced with state support.
"In Afghanistan, women and girls face state-backed gender apartheid, which is unprecedented in the modern world. They are virtually imprisoned in their homes, denied fundamental freedoms, including movement, education, and employment," Türk stated.
Since reclaiming power in August 2021, the Taliban have imposed strict restrictions on women and girls, banning them from secondary and higher education and barring them from working in governmental and non-governmental organizations, including the UN. Additionally, they have enforced severe limitations on women’s participation in public life.
The UN has repeatedly condemned these actions as gender-based discrimination, emphasizing that Afghanistan remains the only country in the world where girls are officially barred from secondary and higher education.
Despite international condemnation, the Taliban maintain that their policies and dismissed global concerns as foreign interference and insist that they are working to address these issues internally.
HRW, however, stresses that the international community must take stronger legal action to ensure accountability and bring an end to the Taliban’s systematic repression of women and girls in Afghanistan.
