LONDON: Human Rights Watch has urged the International Criminal Court in the Hague to assess all sides — including former government forces — in Afghanistan for war crimes and crimes against humanity after the Office of the Prosecutor resumed its investigation on Monday.

Patricia Gossman, HRW’s associate Asia director, said: “The ICC offers a rare opportunity to advance justice in a country where accountability is completely absent.

“This investigation needs to address serious crimes by all sides to the conflict, including US forces, to bring justice even when the most powerful nations are involved.”

The ICC’s initial investigation, stalled in March 2020 at the request of the Afghan government, had been in limbo ever since the takeover of the country by the Taliban in August 2021 — with ICC judges needing to determine who represented the country.

Karim Khan, the ICC prosecutor, was permitted to resume his work on Oct. 31 after judges determined that Afghanistan under the Taliban was not carrying out “genuine” investigations into war crimes or crimes against humanity.

His investigation covers events starting in 2003, following the fall of the Taliban to the US-led coalition, and includes the activities of the Taliban and its affiliates, Daesh, the Afghan National Security Forces and forces belonging to ICC member states stationed in the country, including the US, and their activities in relation to Afghanistan overseas — which relate in part to the practices of the US Central Intelligence Agency.

However, HRW stated that in his initial request to resume his investigation in September 2021, Khan “indicated that any investigation would focus on alleged crimes by the Taliban and the Islamic State of Khorasan Province (ISKP), a (Daesh)-affiliated group, while deprioritizing alleged crimes by Afghan security forces and US personnel.”

HRW said it had found “numerous” examples of violations of international law committed by Afghan and coalition forces in Afghanistan, including torture and summary executions.

It added that the ICC’s investigation “relates to all alleged crimes and actors” and urged Khan to “reconsider his decision to deprioritize these lines of inquiry and reaffirm his mandate to address the most serious abuses by all parties to the conflict.”

However, HRW admitted that the activities of the Taliban and ISKP in the region remained of chief concern, adding that the takeover of the country by the former had raised large concerns not only over bringing historic cases of human rights abuses to justice, but for the rights of future generations. 

HRW highlighted how the Taliban had carried out “unlawful killings, enforced disappearances and other serious abuses predominantly targeting former government security forces and officials and journalists, including women” since its takeover last year, as well as “arbitrary detention, torture and … collective punishment” on their opponents.

The rights of women and girls are of particular concern, it said, following the closure of almost all girls’ secondary schools in the country, their removal from numerous lines of work, and restrictions placed on their freedom of movement and expression. Many women and girls, it added, had been beaten, detained and tortured for protesting these limits placed upon them.

ISKP, meanwhile, are responsible for the deaths of over 1,500 innocent civilians, predominantly from among Afghanistan’s Shiite and Hazara communities. 

The security situation in Afghanistan, HRW said, had forced many thousands to flee the country, and would continue to hamper any ICC attempts to investigate and seek justice for victims.

Gossman said: “The ICC’s work in Afghanistan remains vital for justice to the victims of terrible crimes, including women and girls, ethnic minorities, and LGBT people. Continued impunity in the country’s decades-long conflict will only further the instability, corruption, discrimination, and recurrence of violence that the Afghan people have long endured.”