To mark Human Rights Day, the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) urged the Taliban “to reverse the slew of edicts and practices they have introduced that restrict the basic rights of Afghans, especially those of women and girls.”
Significantly, UNAMA, stated that it “has also documented cases of extrajudicial killings, torture and ill-treatment, as well as arbitrary arrests and detentions carried out by the de facto authorities.” In particular, the United Nations called out the Taliban for “increasing the use of corporal punishments such as public floggings. These constitute a form of cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment and are therefore prohibited by a number of international treaties and conventions to which Afghanistan is a state party.”
A few weeks ago, the Taliban leader, Mullah Hibatullah Akhundzada, emphasized enforcing “hudud and qisas” according to Islamic sharia. In the Taliban’s interpretation, “hudud and qisas” can include lashing, amputating, and stoning to death in front of public crowds.
At least 20 Taliban officials, including five acting ministers, gathered in Farah city to celebrate the public execution of a man accused of murder in the city’s sports stadium on Wednesday, December 7. In its Human Rights Day statement, UNAMA referenced that public execution, saying that it “strongly opposes the use of the death penalty in all circumstances and calls on the de facto authorities to establish an immediate moratorium on executions, with a view to abolishing the death penalty.”
UNAMA said that it urged the Taliban “to conduct thorough, impartial investigations and hold those responsible to account.”
Others may be gearing up to hold the Taliban accountable. A few weeks ago, Fazal Ahmad Manawi, the minister of justice of the previous government of Afghanistan, announced that he had submitted documents of Taliban war crimes to the International Criminal Court in The Hague in the Netherlands. Manawi claimed that the Hague Court gave him a commitment that “criminals will be brought to justice.”
That news comes on the heels of an announcement on October 31 that judges of the International Criminal Court had given permission to its prosecutors to resume their investigation on the charges of war crimes in Afghanistan. The investigation has been stalled for more than two years.
In addition to its concerns about extrajudicial killings and torture, UNAMA talked about the “relentless erosion of women’s rights” as one of the most notable aspects of Taliban rule. Since the Taliban returned to power in August 2021, “women and girls have progressively had their rights to fully participate in education, the workplace and other aspects of public and daily life restricted and in many cases completely taken away. UNAMA has also severely criticized the Taliban’s innumerable restrictions against women and girls in Afghanistan, which have deprived them of many of their basic freedoms and human rights,” it says.
The statement also mentioned the arbitrary arrests of journalists and civil activists by the Taliban. UNAMA specifically mentioned the recent arrest of Zarifa Yaqoubi and her four colleagues, noting that there has still been no information about their fate, more than a month after their arrests.
