THE HAGUE: The International Criminal Court’s chief prosecutor on Thursday said he was seeking arrest warrants against senior Taliban leaders in Afghanistan over the persecution of women, a crime against humanity.

Karim Khan said there were reasonable grounds to suspect that Supreme Leader Haibatullah Akhundzada and chief justice Abdul Hakim Haqqani “bear criminal responsibility for the crime against humanity of persecution on gender grounds”.

Khan said that 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,” added Khan.

ICC judges will now consider Khan’s application before deciding whether to issue the warrants — a process that could take weeks or even months.

UN special rapporteur calls the move ‘a crucial step for accountability in Afghanistan’

The court, 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 its 125 member states to carry out its warrants — with mixed results. In theory this means that anyone subject to an ICC arrest warrant cannot travel to a member state for fear of being detained. Khan warned he would soon be seeking additional applications for other Taliban officials.‘A victory’

Akhundzada inherited the Taliban leadership in May 2016 after a US drone strike in Pakistan killed his predecessor. Believed to be in his 60s or 70s, the reclusive supreme leader rules by decree from the Taliban movement’s birthplace in southern Kandahar.

Haqqani was a close associate of Taliban founder Mullah Omar and served as a negotiator during discussions with US representatives in 2020.

ICC prosecutor Khan argued the Taliban was “brutally” repressing resistance through crimes “including murder, imprisonment, torture, rape and other forms of sexual violence, enforced disappearance, and other inhumane acts”.

Human Rights Watch (HRW) said in a statement the prosecutor’s actions should put the Taliban’s exclusion of women and girls from public life back on the international agenda. “This is an important moment for Afghan women and girls who have been waiting much too long for justice,” HRW’s women’s rights deputy director, Heather Barr, said, calling for “other efforts to hold the Taliban fully accountable”.

The move was praised by Afghan women activists, including Shukria Barakzai, an Afghan former lawmaker and the ousted government’s ex-ambassador to Norway. “It’s a victory,” she said from London. “This also could be counted as (an) important achievement for feminism globally... and particularly for women in Afghanistan.”

Published in Dawn, January 24th, 2025