On the fourth anniversary of the Taliban’s return to power, Afghan women’s protest movements issued a joint statement declaring that the United Nations and its member states are duty-bound to protect the human rights and freedoms of the Afghan people. They said that through “inaction and double standards,” the international community has effectively enabled the continuation of the Taliban’s “crimes.”
The women’s movements called on the world to classify the Taliban as a terrorist group and a systematically abusive violator of human rights. They also urged that any engagement with the Taliban be conditioned on respect for human rights.
According to the statement, the Taliban have violated principles of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights by closing schools and universities to women, suppressing free expression, arbitrarily detaining women, activists, and journalists, killing former security personnel, and torturing and forcibly displacing minorities.
The groups accused the Taliban of imposing “gender apartheid” in Afghanistan and demanded that it be formally recognized. They called for the establishment of a fact-finding commission under the UN Human Rights Council to document Taliban “crimes,” especially gender apartheid.
Their additional demands include the arrest of Taliban leaders, further sanctions and restrictions on the group, prevention of “summary trials and secret prisons,” protection of women protesters, attention to the demands of the Afghan people, and implementation of commitments made in international meetings on the future of Afghan women.
They also urged countries and international institutions to immediately abandon their policy of “appeasement” toward the Taliban.
August 14 marks the Taliban’s return to power — a day on which Afghan women, the most affected under Taliban rule, organize protests, issue statements, and carry out symbolic actions to voice their demands.
