Senior Taliban officials in Afghanistan were the subject of arrest warrants issued by the International Criminal Court (ICC) on Tuesday for the crime against humanity of persecuting women.
In a statement, ICC judges claimed that there were “reasonable grounds” to believe that Chief Justice Abdul Hakim Haqqani and Supreme Leader Haibatullah Akhundzada “have committed… the crime against humanity of persecution… on gender grounds.”
“While the Taliban have imposed certain rules and prohibitions on the population as a whole, they have specifically targeted girls and women by reason of their gender, depriving them of fundamental rights and freedoms,” the judge stated.
According to the court, the accused offenses were perpetrated from August 15, 2021, when the Taliban took control, to at least January 20, 2025.
