The World Court, ICC has issued arrest warrants against top Taliban leaders, including Supreme Leader Haibatullah, for crimes against humanity over their persecution of Afghan women and girls.
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THE HAGUE: In an unprecedented development, the International Criminal Court (ICC) has issued arrest warrants against two of the highest-ranking Taliban leaders, Supreme Leader Haibatullah Akhundzada and Chief Justice Abdul Hakim Haqqani.
This move comes after thorough investigations concluded that there are reasonable grounds to believe the Taliban has systematically committed crimes against humanity, specifically targeting Afghan women and girls.
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The International Criminal Court (ICC) on Tuesday took a historic step by issuing arrest warrants against two of the Taliban’s most powerful leaders, Supreme Leader Haibatullah Akhundzada and Chief Justice Abdul Hakim Haqqani, accusing them of committing crimes against humanity through the persecution of women and girls in Afghanistan.
The Hague-based court stated there are “reasonable grounds to believe” that both leaders were responsible for enforcing policies that deliberately targeted women and girls based on their gender, gender identity, and gender expression, particularly since the Taliban’s return to power in 2021.
Since taking control, the Taliban has imposed a range of severe restrictions on Afghan women and girls, including banning education for girls over the age of 12, barring women from most forms of employment, restricting their freedom of movement without a male chaperone, and even prohibiting them from speaking loudly in public.
The ICC emphasized that while certain rules apply to the general population, the Taliban has intentionally and disproportionately targeted women, systematically depriving them of their basic human rights. These actions, according to the ICC, constitute the crime against humanity of gender-based persecution under the Rome Statute.
In response to the arrest warrants, the Taliban issued a statement rejecting the ICC’s authority, calling the move “a clear act of hostility” and “an insult to the beliefs of Muslims around the world.”
They maintained that their treatment of women aligns with their interpretation of Afghan culture and Islamic law, claims that have been widely dismissed by the international community and human rights organizations. The United Nations has previously described the Taliban’s actions as tantamount to “gender apartheid.”
Haibatullah Akhundzada, the current supreme leader of the Taliban and head of the so-called Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, rose to prominence after the withdrawal of U.S.-led forces in 2021. Abdul Hakim Haqqani, a close ally of Taliban founder Mullah Omar, serves as the regime’s Chief Justice and played a prominent role during the Taliban’s negotiations with U.S. representatives in 2020.
While it is unlikely that the ICC will be able to enforce these warrants in the near term without cooperation from Afghan authorities or a regime change, the issuance of the warrants is nonetheless a powerful legal and symbolic step.
It signals to the world that gender-based oppression, even when carried out by a sovereign regime, will not be ignored by international law. The move has been welcomed by human rights advocates who see it as a significant advancement in the global fight for women’s rights and a warning to authoritarian regimes that systematic gender persecution will not go unpunished.
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