The resurgence of the Taliban in Afghanistan in August 2021 cast a long shadow of oppression over the nation, disproportionately impacting women and the LGBTQ+ community. While the violence against women has garnered significant international attention, the plight of LGBTQ+ individuals remain largely obscured, a silent atrocity demanding urgent global intervention. A comprehensive report, drawing [...]
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In the latest in a series of decrees, Afghanistan’s ruling Taliban have banned women from hearing other women’s voices. The Telegraph reported that the minister for the promotion of virtue and prevention of vice, Khalid Hanafi, said: “Even when an adult female prays and another female passes by, she must not pray loudly enough for [...]
Editorial: America’s Rule of Law in Crisis — A Warning and an Appeal from JURIST
In the wake of a bitterly divisive election campaign, American citizens officially go to the polls on Tuesday, November 5. This is the seventh US election that JURIST has covered since 2000, when for 36 days this university-based legal news non-profit, then not even five years old, chronicled the highs and lows of the recount [...]
Beyond the Taliban's Shadow: Forging a Path to Justice in Afghanistan
More than three years since the military takeover by Taliban in 2021, Afghanistan remains engulfed in a severe human rights crisis. Extrajudicial killings, public executions, flogging in stadiums, and other forms of corporal punishment, arbitrary detentions, torture and disappearances of former government officials, members of the national security forces, judges, lawyers, human rights defenders, journalists, [...]
UNHRC set to review Pakistan human rights record amid rising abuses
The UN Human Rights Committee (UNHRC) is set to review Pakistan’s human rights record this Thursday and Friday under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR). According to Amnesty International (AI), the review “comes at a crucial time for the country, as human rights violations and abuses remain rampant.” The review is part of Pakistan’s commitments [...]
HRW: Afghanistan ex-policewomen face sexual abuses and threats
Human Rights Watch (HRW) on Thursday reported ongoing threats against Afghan women who had served in the police under the former government. While the current Taliban authorities are held responsible for these threats, the report also notes that policewomen faced sexual abuse and harassment while serving under the former government. The report urges countries that [...]
Amnesty International on Thursday criticized a recent United Nations Human Rights Council (HRC) resolution regarding Afghanistan, joining other rights groups in asserting that the resolution fails to hold human rights abusers in the country accountable. Amnesty International’s Regional Director for South Asia Smriti Singh criticized the resolution for failing to establish an “independent international accountability [...]
Recent headlines brought a glimmer of hope to the women and girls whose lives under the Taliban have essentially been reduced to prison terms: Canada, Australia, Germany, and the Netherlands announced plans to bring the Taliban to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) for gender discrimination. As an Afghan woman, I have been horrified to [...]
26 countries support legal action against Taliban for violations of women's rights
Twenty-six countries on Thursday expressed their support for a legal initiative to hold the Taliban accountable at the International Court of Justice for systematic human rights violations against women and girls in Afghanistan. In a joint statement, the countries condemned Taliban policies that have severely curtailed the rights of Afghan women and girls since the [...]
In a monumental decision, Canada, Australia, Germany and the Netherlands are set to initiate legal proceedings against the Taliban at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) over allegations of gender discrimination and apartheid, the Guardian newspaper reported Wednesday from the UN. This would mark the first instance in which the ICJ, located at The Hague [...]