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 in the Netherlands, will witness a country brought to trial by others specifically on the grounds of gender discrimination.
The announcement was made at a recent UN General Assembly side event, where actress Meryl Streep highlighted the harsh restrictions faced by Afghan women, She stated that animals enjoy more freedom than Afghan women who, are even barred from public parks. Streep said:
A female cat has more freedom than a woman. A cat may go sit on her front stoop and feel the sun on her face. She may chase a squirrel into the park. A squirrel has more rights than a girl in Afghanistan today because the public parks have been closed to women and girls by the Taliban. A bird may sing in Kabul, but a girl may not.
The nations involved in the legal action express a willingness to engage diplomatically with the Taliban to address and eradicate gender-based discrimination. However, they remain firm in their resolve to seek justice through an ICJ hearing if diplomatic efforts fall short. These proceedings are rooted in the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), which was implemented after being ratified by the UN General Assembly in 1979 and brought into effect in 1981.
Proponents of this unprecedented legal action emphasize that even if the Taliban elect to disregard the ICJ’s jurisdiction, a ruling could still deter other nations from establishing diplomatic ties with the Taliban regime. As signatories to the ICJ, member states are implicitly expected to comply with its directives.
Concerns have been raised regarding previous UN discussions with the Taliban, during which women’s rights issues were allegedly side-lined to encourage the Taliban’s participation. This legal initiative has garnered support from prominent female foreign ministers, including Penny Wong of Australia, Annalena Baerbock of Germany, and Mélanie Joly of Canada.
Recent actions by the Taliban, which include prohibiting Afghan women from speaking publicly, have spurred online protests led by Afghan women using their voices in defiance.
Last month, new Taliban-enforced regulations further curtailed women’s freedoms, mandating full-body coverage for women leaving home and banning them from singing or raising their voices publicly.
Fereshta Abassi, Afghanistan researcher at Human Rights Watch commented that this step “may mark the beginning of a path to justice at the World Court for the Taliban’s egregious human rights violations against Afghan women and girls.”
If the ICJ determines that Afghanistan has violated the CEDAW, it could lead to individual or collective actions by other countries — though likely non-military. Moreover, such a ruling might discourage nations from deporting Afghan women and girls seeking asylum, instead prompting them to grant refugee status to these individuals based on gender discrimination alone.
Afghanistan, which ratified this convention in 2003, is expected to respond to these allegations within a six-month window before the ICJ conducts a formal hearing. The momentum to hold the Taliban to account and end their impunity is growing.
In recent days a group of researchers from the Ham Diley Campaign and Monash University in Australia released a Handbook on Universal Jurisdiction: Holding The Taliban Accountable For International Crimes, in a further move to find way to bring the Taliban to account. It recalls domestic frameworks and applicability of the principle of universal jurisdiction by states such as the UK, Germany, Australia and Norway.
This follows the European Parliament’s adoption of a related resolution on September 19, which passed with 565 votes in favor, eight against, and 43 abstentions. The resolution acknowledges the worsening conditions for Afghan women and girls after the Taliban implemented their law on the “Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice.”
