UN Experts Urge Taliban To Repeal Penal Code
UN human rights experts have raised concerns in an open letter to the Taliban over their penal code, warning that they undermine human rights protections in Afghanistan and should be repealed.
UN human rights experts have raised concerns in an open letter to the Taliban over their penal code, warning that they undermine human rights protections in Afghanistan and should be repealed.
The experts said the Taliban’s criminal procedure code for courts, known as “Decree No. 12”, is inconsistent with Afghanistan’s international obligations.
In the letter, addressed to Amir Khan Muttaqi, the Taliban’s foreign minister, they stressed that parts of the regulations do not align with the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the Convention Against Torture and other human rights treaties.
The experts called for the immediate revision of the regulations and urged the Taliban to respect the rights of all individuals under their control.
A new UN Women report says fewer than one in five Afghan women returning from Iran and Pakistan can earn an income, worsening poverty and food insecurity among returnee families.
According to the report, prepared with researchers from the Samuel Hall institute and based on data from 700 returnee women in Herat, Nangarhar and Kabul, Afghan women, despite having work experience and technical skills, face an almost complete collapse of job opportunities after returning.
The study shows that more than 40 precent of returnee women have skills they are unable to use, including technical, vocational and digital skills.
In addition, more than three-quarters of women who were employed in Iran and nearly two-thirds of those working in Pakistan have become unemployed after returning to Afghanistan.
The report stresses that the main barriers facing returnee women are restrictions imposed by the Taliban on women’s employment and movement, limited access to capital and tools, and a lack of market opportunities.
More than three-quarters of these women have no tools or capital to start a business.
According to the report, more than 5.5 million Afghans have returned from Iran and Pakistan since 2023, placing unprecedented pressure on the local economy.
Women and girls made up more than a quarter of returnees from Iran and nearly half of those from Pakistan in 2025, and a new wave of women returning from Iran is expected due to the Middle East conflict.
Susan Ferguson, the UN special representative for women in Afghanistan, stressed the need to support women’s economic participation, saying: "Afghan returnee women arrive in extremely difficult conditions, often without capital or support networks. Some return with experience and skills, while others start from scratch, but all need opportunities and access to livelihoods and services to build a dignified life."
UN Women has called for increased investment in livelihood tools and assets for returnee women, targeted support for sectors with demand and sustainability such as small-scale livestock, food processing and tailoring, expanded technical training and guidance to adapt to market conditions, and increased grant support.
The Taliban’s Supreme Court said two people were flogged in public in Badghis and Nangarhar.
The Taliban’s Supreme Court said on Tuesday, April 14, that in Badghis a woman received 20 lashes on charges of extramarital relations, while in Nangarhar a person was given 39 lashes for kidnapping and extramarital relations.
The Taliban also sentenced the woman in Badghis to one year of enforced imprisonment, and the individual in Nangarhar to one year and six months of discretionary imprisonment.
Human rights organisations say the Taliban’s judicial system is non-standard, and that defendants are deprived of even the most basic fair trial procedures, including access to legal counsel.
United Nations experts have strongly condemned the increase in public corporal punishments in Afghanistan, describing them as a clear violation of international human rights law.
The Taliban Supreme Court says one woman and four men were publicly flogged in Maidan Wardak and Zabul provinces for theft, extramarital affairs and same-sex relations. The group said that each of them received 39 lashes and prison terms of two to three years.
In separate statements on Monday, April 13, the court said one person was punished in Shahjoy district of Zabul, while one woman and three men were flogged in Sayedabad district of Maidan Wardak.
According to the statements, those in Wardak were punished in public in the presence of local officials, security personnel, government staff and residents.
Since the start late March, the Taliban have flogged at least 97 people across Afghanistan on various charges.
Despite opposition from international organisations to corporal punishment and torture, the Taliban have continued carrying out public floggings.
The group describes such punishments as the implementation of “Islamic Sharia”.
A Kabul University student says Taliban Higher Education Minister Neda Mohammad Nadeem slapped and questioned him for wearing an Uzbek cap, calling it political. The student says the cap reflects his culture.
A student at Kabul University has alleged that Taliban Higher Education Minister Neda Mohammad Nadeem interrogated and struck him for wearing a traditional Uzbek cap on campus.
Hebatullah Yaqoboghlu, a student of Uzbek language and literature, told Afghanistan International that Taliban authorities had recently instructed students to wear caps. Some students, he said, chose to wear traditional Uzbek headwear.
According to the student, a group of students were voluntarily collecting rubbish on campus on Wednesday when a vehicle carrying the Taliban minister stopped nearby.
He claimed that Nadeem’s guards initially questioned the students about their caps, after which the minister himself interrogated them.
“We thought the minister might appreciate our efforts, but instead he took a student’s cap and threw it on the ground,” he said.
The student said the minister described the cap as a political symbol, claiming it was associated with Manzoor Pashteen and had no connection to Afghanistan.
Manzoor Pashteen is a leader of the Pashtun Tahafuz Movement in Pakistan and a critic of the Taliban.
Yaqoboghlu said Nadeem asked why he was wearing the cap and whether he had been instructed by someone else. “I told him I have worn this cap since childhood and that it is part of our culture,” he said.
He added that, on Nadeem’s orders, he removed the mask he was wearing, after which the minister slapped him.
“My pain is not from the slap, but from the fact that even my cap is not tolerated in this country,” he said. “It was not my face that hurt, but my heart.”
The student also claimed that his student ID was confiscated and that he was expelled from the university.
The incident has drawn criticism. Rahila Dostum, a former senator and daughter of former vice president Abdul Rashid Dostum, described the minister’s behaviour as “ugly, discriminatory and insulting”.
She said disrespecting cultural identity has no place in any system and warned that such actions leave a troubling mark on the Taliban’s record.
Anwar Sadat, a former labour minister, also criticised Nadeem, calling him a “terrorist” and accusing him of ethnically motivated behaviour.
He claimed that Nadeem had previously been involved in violence and destruction in northern Afghanistan and added that efforts to reach political understanding with the Taliban would not succeed while figures such as Nadeem and Hibatullah Akhundzada remain in power.
The Taliban Supreme Court says a woman was publicly flogged with 39 lashes in Khost province on Wednesday, accused of “running away from home”, and sentenced to two years in prison.
The Taliban had earlier said that in 2025 they executed at least six people and flogged 1,118 others across Afghanistan on various charges.
The group describes the flogging of those convicted by its courts as the implementation of “Islamic Sharia”.
Despite strong opposition from international organisations to corporal punishment and torture, the Taliban have continued to carry out public floggings.
Human rights groups say the Taliban’s judicial system is non-standard and that defendants are denied basic fair trial rights, including access to legal representation.
