In a scathing statement, human rights experts of the United Nations say that they are “deeply aggrieved about a public execution and that flogging has resumed in Afghanistan and call on the de facto authorities to halt immediately all forms of torturous, cruel and degrading forms of punishments.”
The statement, issued on December 16 by experts at the United Nations, including Richard Bennett, Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Afghanistan; Alice Jill Edwards, Special Rapporteur on Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment; and Morris Tidball-Binz, Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions.
The UN declaration comes a month after the Taliban leader, Mullah Hibatullah Akhundzada, told Taliban judges to enforce “hudud and qisas” according to Islamic sharia. In the Taliban’s interpretation, “hudud and qisas” can include lashing, amputating limbs, and stoning to death in front of public crowds. Since then, more than 100 people have been publicly flogged across Afghanistan. On December 15, the Taliban publicly flogged 27 people in Helmand and Zabul provinces, while another 12 were whipped in the sports stadium of Firozkoh in Ghor province, where four spectators were arrested, reportedly for filming the torture, residents.
Last week, the Taliban executed a man in public in Farah province, the first public execution after the group regained control of Afghanistan. At least 20 senior officials of the Taliban, including the acting minister of foreign affairs, witnessed the death sentence.
“Public floggings and public executions violate universal principles prohibiting torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment,” the UN experts say, noting that “the public spectacle of these punishments make them especially distasteful and undignified.” In particular, the UN talks about the Taliban crime of having “illegitimate” relationships, saying that “while criminalisation of relationships outside of wedlock seem gender-neutral, in practice, punishment is overwhelmingly directed against women and girls.”
This is the latest condemnation by the United Nations of the spike in public brutality by the Taliban. In a social media message posted on Saturday, December 3, UNAMA notes that Afghanistan has signed the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, adding, “All Afghans deserve freedom, equality and dignity.”
There is no indication that the Taliban will honour Afghanistan’s commitment to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Its supreme leader has asserted that the Taliban Emirate does not abide by any human-made laws. They only abide by sharia laws as interpreted by its own cadre of mullahs. The Taliban supreme leader also declared his decrees are also Sharia and obligation of which is must.
The UN experts also raise “doubts about the fairness of the trials preceding these punishments, which appear not to satisfy basic fair trial guarantees.” The regime’s spokespeople have consistently rejected such criticisms in the past, calling them “disrespect to Islam.”
