Want National Reconciliation in Afghanistan, Says Russian Ambassador in Tajikistan

Calling the regressive policies of the Taliban crimes against humanity, the statement said that the actions should be investigated as possible crimes under international law, including the crime against humanity of gender persecution.

Both the international rights watchdog also released a 62-page report, ‘The Taliban’s war on women: The crime against humanity of gender persecution in Afghanistan’, which presents a detailed legal analysis of how the Taliban’s draconian restrictions on the rights of Afghanistan’s women and girls.

The report also emphasises the use of imprisonment, enforced disappearance, torture and other ill-treatment by the Taliban and added that these could amount to the crime against humanity of gender persecution under Article 7(1)(h) of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC).

“Let there be no doubt: this is a war against women – banned from public life; prevented from accessing education; prohibited from working; barred from moving freely; imprisoned, disappeared and tortured including for speaking against these policies and resisting the repression. These are international crimes. They are organized, widespread, systematic,” said Agnès Callamard, Secretary General at Amnesty International.

The statement also called on other states to exercise universal jurisdiction or other lawful means to bring to justice Taliban members suspected of responsibility for crimes under international law.

It added that the upcoming enhanced interactive dialogue on the situation of women and girls in Afghanistan at the 53rd session of the UN Human Rights Council could be used as an opportunity to discuss gender persecution and other possible crimes under international law by the Taliban.

“The gravity of the crime demands a far more robust international response than has been seen to date,” Callamard added.

The report released covers the period from August 2021 to January 2023 and bases its analysis on a growing body of evidence collected by credible sources, including Amnesty International’s 2022 report Death in Slow Motion, civil society organisations and UN authorities.

Cases such as imprisonment, torture, disappearance and misbehaviour of the Taliban members with women are mentioned in the report. Afghan women and girls have been arbitrarily arrested by the Taliban for so-called “moral crimes” as a result of infringing the discriminatory mahram restrictions by the de facto authorities, and for their participation in peaceful demonstrations, said the report.

Furthermore, the report highlights the repressive policies of the Taliban regime against protesting women who took to the streets and demanded their rights and the removal of gender-based discrimination.

The CSTO defence ministers gathered in Minsk and discussed the challenges, threats, instability, and bilateral cooperation of the organisation on Thursday.

Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, and Tajikistan are members of the Collective Security Treaty Organisation.

In the last two years, these countries have held several joint military exercises near the borders of Afghanistan to prevent the infiltration of extremists from the country.

The CSTO member states have expressed their concerns about the active presence of terrorist groups on the borders of Afghanistan.

However, the Russian defence minister warned CSTO member states at the meeting in Minsk that in the future, it is possible for illegal armed groups in Afghanistan to infiltrate neighbouring countries to carry out terrorist acts.

According to Russian media outlets, Shoigu accused the US of planning to use militias in Afghanistan to destabilise the region. He claimed that for this purpose, the transfer of militants from controlled gangs in the Middle East to Afghanistan has been organised.

Shoigu stressed that given the current situation in Afghanistan, it is important to conduct joint exercises bilaterally and multilaterally.

The foreign minister of Iran added that the issue of water rights from the Helmand River can’t be solved with a political statement.

Amir Abdollahian’s statement about the Taliban and Iran’s objection to the group is the latest in a series of tense stances of Iranian officials in recent days.

Earlier during his visit to Indonesia, Iranian president Ebrahim Raisi talked about the situation of Afghan women too.

Tensions of have increased between Iran and the Taliban in the past week after the Iranian president warned the Taliban on the water rights issue from Helmand River.

However, Saleh has not confirmed if there had been any casualties due to the airport attack.

The Afghan Vice-President wrote on Twitter on Thursday that following the attack, the Taliban searched through the smartphones of several people and deleted the images and videos regarding the attack to prevent the information from getting leaked to the public.

Saleh added that following the incident, the Taliban had claimed that such an attack had not taken place.

Saleh, on Monday, attributed the crash of the Taliban’s helicopter in Samangan province to the “Special Unit” too.

However, it is not clear whether the "Special Unit" is part of the National Resistance Front of Afghanistan or acts as an independent group.

At a press conference in Geneva, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights strongly criticised the Taliban and said that he could not understand how the group “can trample so cruelly upon the spirit of girls and women”.

The Taliban has rejected what the United Nations Human Rights Commissioner described as discrimination and oppression of Afghan women and called these statements as interference in the domestic affairs of Afghanistan.

Mawlawi Neda Mohmmad Nadim, the Taliban’s Minister of Higher Education, said in a meeting with the chief of the Pakistani mission in Kabul that international organisations and countries have been interfering in Afghanistan's internal affairs in the name of concerns about human rights situation of Afghanistan.

Justifying the Taliban's discriminatory policies, he said that "Afghans live in a traditional and intellectual society" and portrayed that the Taliban’s policies preserve Afghanistan’s people’s beliefs and culture.

However, Turk pointed out that policies that oppress women must end in Afghanistan and the region. He stressed that such policies while having human effects impacts, also hinder the economic growth of countries.