THE HAGUE: The International Criminal Court’s chief prosecutor on Thursday said he was seeking arrest warrants against senior Taliban leaders in Afghanistan over the persecution of women, a crime against humanity.
Karim Khan said there were reasonable grounds to suspect that Supreme Leader Haibatullah Akhundzada and chief justice Abdul Hakim Haqqani “bear criminal responsibility for the crime against humanity of persecution on gender grounds.”
Khan said that Afghan women and girls, as well as the LGBTQ community, were facing “an unprecedented, unconscionable and ongoing persecution by the Taliban.
“Our action signals that the status quo for women and girls in Afghanistan is not acceptable,” added Khan.
ICC judges will now consider Khan’s application before deciding whether to issue the warrants — a process that could take weeks or even months.
The court, based in The Hague, was set up to rule on the world’s worst crimes, such as war crimes and crimes against humanity.
It has no police force of its own and relies on its 125 member states to carry out its warrants — with mixed results.
In theory this means that anyone subject to an ICC arrest warrant cannot travel to a member state for fear of being detained.
Khan warned he would soon be seeking additional applications for other Taliban officials.
Akhundzada inherited the Taliban leadership in May 2016 after a US drone strike in Pakistan killed his predecessor.
Believed to be in his 60s or 70s, the reclusive supreme leader rules by decree from the Taliban movement’s birthplace in southern Kandahar.
Haqqani was a close associate of Taliban founder Mullah Omar and served as a negotiator during discussions with US representatives in 2020.
ICC prosecutor Khan argued the Taliban was “brutally” repressing resistance through crimes “including murder, imprisonment, torture, rape and other forms of sexual violence, enforced disappearance, and other inhumane acts.”
Human Rights Watch (HRW) said in a statement the prosecutor’s actions should put the Taliban’s exclusion of women and girls from public life back on the international agenda.
“This is an important moment for Afghan women and girls who have been waiting much too long for justice,” HRW’s women’s rights deputy director, Heather Barr, told AFP, calling for “other efforts to hold the Taliban fully accountable.”
The move was praised by Afghan women activists, including Shukria Barakzai, an Afghan former lawmaker and the ousted government’s ex-ambassador to Norway.
“It’s a victory,” she told AFP from London.
“This also could be counted as (an) important achievement for feminism globally... and particularly for women in Afghanistan.”
The UN special rapporteur for human rights in Afghanistan, Richard Bennett, called the move “a crucial step... for accountability in Afghanistan” on X.
After sweeping back to power in August 2021, the Taliban authorities pledged a softer rule than their first rein from 1996-2001. But they quickly imposed restrictions on women and girls that the United Nations has labelled “gender apartheid.”
Edicts in line with their interpretation of Islamic law have squeezed women and girls from public life.
They have barred girls from secondary school and women from university, making Afghanistan the only country in the world to impose such bans.
Taliban authorities imposed restrictions on women working for non-governmental groups and other employment, with thousands of women losing government jobs — or being paid to stay at home.
Beauty salons have been closed and women blocked from visiting public parks, gyms and baths as well as traveling long distances without a male chaperone.
A “vice and virtue” law announced last summer ordered women not to sing or recite poetry in public and for their voices and bodies to be “concealed” outside the home.
The few remaining women TV presenters wear tight headscarves and face masks in line with a 2022 diktat by Akhundzada that women cover everything but their eyes and hands in public.
The international community has condemned the restrictions, which remain a key sticking point in the Taliban authorities’ pursuit of official recognition, which it has not received from any state.
The Taliban authorities have dismissed international criticism of their policies, saying all citizens’ rights are provided for under Islamic law.
ICC prosecutor seeks arrest of Taliban leaders over persecution of women
https://arab.news/5htp4
ICC prosecutor seeks arrest of Taliban leaders over persecution of women
- ICC judges will consider Khan’s application before deciding whether to issue warrants, a process that could take weeks or even months
- After coming to power in 2021, Taliban quickly imposed restrictions on women and girls that United Nations has called “gender apartheid“
Pope names veteran Vatican diplomat as ambassador to the US to manage relations with Trump
- Italian Archbishop Gabriele Caccia, 68, is currently the Holy See’s ambassador to the UN
- He replaces French-born Cardinal Christophe Pierre
ROME: Pope Leo XIV on Saturday named a veteran Vatican diplomat as his new ambassador to the United States to manage one of the Holy See’s most important bilateral relationships at a crucial time, with ties strained over the Trump administration’s war in Iran and immigration crackdown.
Italian Archbishop Gabriele Caccia, 68, is currently the Holy See’s ambassador to the United Nations in New York. He replaces French-born Cardinal Christophe Pierre, who at age 80 is retiring as apostolic nuncio in Washington.
Caccia served as the Holy See’s ambassador to Lebanon and the Philippines before being posted to the UN in 2019. Ordained a priest in Milan in 1983, Caccia later served as “assessor” in the Vatican secretariat of state, a key administrative post in the Holy See’s most important office.
He inherits a complicated and consequential dossier on both the US church and state fronts at a time of global turmoil.
Pierre’s tenure as ambassador was notable for clear signs of friction between the leadership of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops, which tends to skew conservative, and the more progressive priorities of Pope Francis’ pontificate.
The relationship with the US and its church is crucial for the Holy See, not least because US Catholics are the most generous donors to the Holy See’s coffers.
Leo, history’s first US-born pope, is well aware of the dynamic, having served as Francis’ point man on bishop nominations for two years before his 2025 election. Leo has emphasized a message of pacification and unity in the church.
The first Trump administration clashed with Francis especially on migration, and that tension has continued in Leo’s pontificate and the second Trump term. Leo has repeatedly insisted that the Trump administration respect the human dignity of migrants, while acknowledging its right to its borders.
More recently, Leo has expressed “profound concern” about the US-Israeli war in Iran and urged both sides to “stop the spiral of violence before it becomes an irreparable abyss.”
In comments last Sunday, Leo called for the resumption of diplomacy. Weapons, he said, only sow “destruction, pain and death.”
In a major foreign policy speech earlier this year, Leo also made clear he opposed the US aggressive use of military power, in an apparent reference to Washington’s incursion in Venezuela and threats to take Greenland. He denounced how nations were using force to assert their dominion worldwide and “completely undermine” peace and the post-World War II international legal order.
Caccia said in a statement Saturday he was humbled by Leo’s appointment and faith in naming him ambassador to his native country.
“I receive this mission with both joy and a sense of trepidation,” according to a statement reported by Vatican News. He said his was a mission “at the service of communion and peace,” recalling that this year marks the 250th anniversary of the US independence.
The current president of the US conference, Archbishop Paul S. Coakley, welcomed Caccia’s appointment and offered the US hierarchy’s “warmest welcome and our prayerful support.”
The Holy See has a tradition of diplomatic neutrality, though Leo has spoken out strongly against the humanitarian toll of Israel’s military action in Gaza and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
