Afghanistan humanitarian crisis has intensified since Taliban’s return to power, rights group reports News
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Afghanistan humanitarian crisis has intensified since Taliban’s return to power, rights group reports

Human Rights Watch (HRW) on Monday reported that in the five years since the Taliban’s resurgence, the group has fostered a hostile environment and spurred one of the world’s worst human rights crises. HRW called on governments around the world to take decisive action as opposed to passively providing condolences, stating that the international response should match the scale of the crisis.

HRW called upon countries around the world to support these international bodies in their work so that women, children, and other Afghan citizens may see relief from perpetual human rights abuses. Fereshta Abbasi, an Afghanistan researcher at HRW, stated: “The fifth anniversary of the Taliban takeover is a grim marker of the devastating costs of impunity. Governments should move beyond statements of concern and press for justice for serious crimes in Afghanistan, including the crime against humanity of gender persecution.”

Since the Taliban returned to power in August of 2021, the country’s turbulent social and political climate has been comprised of a reported decline of rights for women and girls, a lack of food security, restrictions on press freedoms, mass displacement, and hostilities with Pakistan. Now the country, which has continually ranked last in Georgetown’s Women, Peace, and Security Index, faces a catastrophe that may only be cured by overwhelming international support.

The Islamic fundamentalist group has adapted social prohibitions for women into an intense legal and administrative framework, promulgating laws denying women access to anything more than an elementary education, restricting access to healthcare, dissolving the minimum age for legal marriage, and removing domestic violence protections. UN Women has indicated that more than 10 million women are in need of humanitarian aid in Afghanistan.

Additionally, nearly one-third of the population is facing acute food insecurity spurred by blocked supply routes, crop failure due to an intensifying climate crisis, and displacement and security issues. Afghanistan is facing one of the world’s largest displacement crises due to a mass return of refugees to the country from neighboring host countries.

The human rights crisis in Afghanistan has been made worse by a sharp decline in humanitarian aid previously provided by countries such as the United States and United Kingdom. In 2025, the Trump administration effectively shut the United States’ foreign aid program, cutting the bulk of aid provided to countries in need. The US was previously Afghanistan’s largest donor, and was responsible for around 40 percent of the humanitarian aid the country received.

To address this, the UN in 2025 adopted a resolution creating an independent body to investigate human rights abuses amounting to international crimes and has called upon other countries for urgent support and funding to ensure that the body becomes fully effective and in use for future prosecutions. The new accountability body will work closely with the International Criminal Court (ICC) to collect and prepare evidence of international crimes for the court to utilize. The ICC has launched a handful of investigations into potential crimes in Afghanistan, including a 2020 inquiry into possible war crimes and crimes against humanity that received backlash from the US, and the recent issuance of arrest warrants for two senior Taliban leaders.

 

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