140 Civil Society Groups Call for Criminalization of Taliban Gender Apartheid

DID Press: About 140 civil society organizations and women’s protest movements have called on the United Nations and the international community to recognize and criminalize the Taliban’s gender apartheid as a “crime against humanity” and halt political engagement with the group.

In a joint statement marking the fifth anniversary of the fall of Afghanistan, the organizations said the systematic exclusion of women from social, educational and political life under Taliban rule constitutes gender apartheid and a crime against humanity.

They called for those responsible to be prosecuted in international courts.The statement described the Taliban as an “usurping and illegitimate group” and said political engagement with the group would amount to normalizing and legitimizing its alleged abuses.

The organizations also described the organized transfer of suspected individuals from Pakistan to Afghanistan as a “dangerous project” aimed at changing the country’s indigenous social and demographic structure, and called on the United Nations to immediately halt the process.

They accused the Taliban of land grabbing, forced displacement and the seizure of people’s property, describing such actions as unlawful and a form of plunder and forced displacement.The signatories also described the alleged systematic killing of members of Afghanistan’s former security forces as “war crimes” and called for investigations into cases involving the killing and repression of former security personnel before international courts.

The statement was signed by groups including Afghanistan Women’s Revolution, Phoenix, the Women’s Movement of Kunduz, Goharshad Begum Organization, the Women’s Welfare and Justice Movement, Anar Academy, the Buddha Lantern Movement, and the Alliance and Solidarity of Afghan Women, among dozens of other organizations.

The groups also called for an immediate end to the detention and torture of journalists, an end to the closure of independent media outlets, and measures to prevent the forced deportation of migrants to Afghanistan under Taliban rule.

They further called for humanitarian aid to be distributed solely under the direct supervision of international organizations.