HRW Calls for Taliban Accountability Over Rights Abuses

DID Press: Human Rights Watch has called on the United Nations Human Rights Council to establish effective mechanisms to hold the Taliban accountable for serious human rights violations in Afghanistan, including systematic restrictions on women and girls.

Speaking at the 63rd session of the UN Human Rights Council, the rights group said the Taliban’s policies since returning to power in 2021 have severely undermined fundamental rights, particularly those of women and girls. Human Rights Watch has described the pattern of restrictions as amounting to gender persecution.

The organization also raised concerns over arbitrary detention, enforced disappearances, torture and other abuses targeting journalists, human rights defenders, peaceful protesters and former government personnel. Its 2026 assessment similarly documents arbitrary arrests, torture and restrictions on media and civil society under Taliban rule.

Human Rights Watch urged UN member states to support the continuation of the mandate of the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Afghanistan and to ensure that the independent accountability mechanism established by the Human Rights Council becomes operational as soon as possible.

The organization also called on governments not to normalize relations with the Taliban without clear and measurable human rights benchmarks and urged states to refrain from forcibly returning people to Afghanistan.