The International Criminal Court (ICC) is seeking arrest warrants for senior Taliban leaders in Afghanistan for alleged persecution of women, a crime against humanity. The Taliban government condemned the move as politically motivated, accusing the ICC of double standards and ignoring war crimes committed by foreign forces during the 20-year occupation. The ICC chief prosecutor stated there were reasonable grounds to suspect that Supreme Leader Haibatullah Akhundzada and chief justice Abdul Hakim Haqqani bear criminal responsibility for the persecution.
ICC chief accuses Taliban leaders of gender-based persecution , while the Taliban counters with claims of double standards and alleged foreign war crimes in Afghanistan .
It comes a day after the ICC chief prosecutor said he was seeking warrants against senior Taliban leaders in Afghanistan over the persecution of women –- a crime against humanity. It said the court should “not attempt to impose a particular interpretation of human rights on the entire world and ignore the religious and national values of people of the rest of the world”.The Taliban swept back to power in 2021 after ousting the American-backed government in a rapid but largely bloodless military takeover, imposing a severe interpretation of Islamic law, or sharia, on the population and heavily restricting all aspects of women’s lives.
Khan said Afghan women and girls, as well as the LGBTQ community, were facing “an unprecedented, unconscionable and ongoing persecution by the Taliban”. Amnesty International said it was a “crucial step to hold accountable all those allegedly responsible for the gender-based deprivation of fundamental rights”.It also renewed calls for the ICC prosecutor to reconsider his 2021 decision to deprioritise investigations into war crimes allegedly committed by the US military, CIA personnel, and other international forces in Afghanistan.
ICC Taliban Afghanistan Gender-Based Persecution War Crimes
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