ICC seeks arrest of Taliban leaders over persecution of women

International court issues warrants against Afghan group's leader and head of supreme court

Afghan women stage a protest to demand the right to education and work in Mazar-e-Sharif, Afghanistan, in August 2023. EPA

The International Criminal Court on Tuesday issued arrest warrants for the Taliban leader Haibatullah Akhundzada and the head of Afghanistan's supreme court, accusing them of the persecution of women and girls.

ICC judges said in a statement that there were “reasonable grounds” to suspect Mr Akhundzada and Chief Justice Abdul Hakim Haqqani “have committed … the crime against humanity of persecution … on gender grounds”.

“While the Taliban have imposed certain rules and prohibitions on the population as a whole, they have specifically targeted girls and women by reason of their gender, depriving them of fundamental rights and freedoms,” the court said. The court said the alleged crimes had been committed between August 15, 2021 – when the Taliban seized power – and continued until at least January 20 this year.

The Taliban had “severely deprived” girls and women of the rights to education, privacy and family life and the freedoms of movement, expression, thought, conscience and religion, ICC judges said. “In addition, other persons were targeted because certain expressions of sexuality and/or gender identity were regarded as inconsistent with the Taliban's policy on gender.”

The ICC, based in The Hague, was set up to rule on the world's worst crimes such as war crimes and crimes against humanity. It has no police force of its own and relies on its member states to enforce its arrest warrants – with mixed results. In theory this means that anyone subject to an ICC arrest warrant cannot travel to a member state for fear of being detained.

With reporting from agencies