Elisenda Calvet, a judge at the People’s Tribunal for Women of Afghanistan, said in Madrid that after five years of Taliban rule, conditions had not improved and the outlook remained bleak.
Public hearings of the People’s Tribunal for Women of Afghanistan were held last year in Madrid, Spain, beginning on 8 October and concluding on 10 October. Prosecutors presented an indictment, while Afghan women and girls testified as victims of Taliban rule.
Speaking on Thursday at an event marking the first anniversary of the tribunal, Calvet said it was a civil society initiative created from within society and centred on people rather than governments.
She said the tribunal nevertheless followed the formal structure of a court, including prosecutors, judges, witnesses and the issuing of a judgement.
According to Calvet, the tribunal’s panel of judges and experts came from a range of professional backgrounds, including law, psychology, journalism and Islamic law.
She added that gender-based violence was examined as a criminal matter rather than a cultural issue.
Calvet said the hearings were held in Madrid and the tribunal heard testimony from 24 Afghan women living both inside and outside Afghanistan.
She said organisers sought to include women from different ethnic groups and social backgrounds to make the process as inclusive as possible.
The tribunal judge also stressed that some witnesses faced security risks. Although the Taliban did not participate in the hearings, she said the group was monitoring the proceedings, creating risks for some of those who testified.
Calvet said initiatives of this kind were important for advocacy and for strengthening confidence in the law at a time when concerns were growing over the state of international law.
She said developments in Afghanistan amounted to a system of laws, decrees and structures that systematically targeted women and girls.
Calvet added that Afghan women had also used the term “gender apartheid” during the Taliban’s first period in power in the 1990s, saying the situation was not a new phenomenon.
She reiterated that the tribunal treated gender-based violence as a criminal matter rather than a cultural issue.
The tribunal says its aim is to draw global attention to the targeted repression of Afghan women and girls under Taliban rule, document crimes against humanity, particularly gender-based discrimination and persecution, and increase international pressure to hold the Taliban accountable.
