Prosecutor Karim Khan says there are reasonable grounds to believe crimes against humanity are being committed against women and girls in Afghanistan.
The top prosecutor at the International Criminal Court (ICC) has applied for arrest warrants for two Taliban leaders in Afghanistan including supreme spiritual leader Haibatullah Akhundzada, accusing them of the persecution of women and girls.
A statement issued by the office of ICC Chief Prosecutor Karim Khan on Thursday said investigators found reasonable grounds to believe that Akhundzada and Abdul Hakim Haqqani, who has served as chief justice since 2021, “bear criminal responsibility for the crime against humanity of persecution on gender grounds”.
They are “criminally responsible for persecuting Afghan girls and women … and persons whom the Taliban perceived as allies of girls and women”, the statement said.
There was no immediate comment by Taliban leaders on the prosecutor’s statement.
Since the Taliban’s return to power in 2021, it has clamped down on women’s rights, including limits to schooling, work and general independence in daily life.
A three-judge panel at the ICC will now be expected to rule on the prosecution request, which has no set deadline. Such procedures take an average of three months.
This is the first time ICC prosecutors have publicly sought warrants in their investigation into potential war crimes in Afghanistan, which dates back to 2007 and once included alleged crimes by the US military there.
Khan said that his office was demonstrating its commitment to pursuing accountability for gender-based crimes and that the Taliban’s interpretation of Islamic sharia law could not be a justification for human rights abuses or crimes.
“Afghan women and girls as well as the LGBTQI+ community are facing an unprecedented, unconscionable and ongoing persecution by the Taliban. Our action signals that the status quo for women and girls in Afghanistan is not acceptable,” the prosecutor said.
Zalmai Nishat, founder of the United Kingdom-based charity Mosaic Afghanistan, said that if ICC warrants were issued, it may have little impact on Akhundzada, who rarely travels outside Afghanistan.
“But in terms of international reputation of the Taliban, this basically means a complete erosion of their international legitimacy, if they had any,” he said.
‘Existential crisis at the ICC?’
Khan’s move came amid a crisis at the court, which opened in The Hague in 2002 to prosecute individuals accused of war crimes, crimes against humanity, genocide and aggression.
The administration of US President Donald Trump is preparing new sanctions against the court after it issued an arrest warrant for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for alleged war crimes in Gaza.
Moscow also struck back at the ICC for its 2023 warrant against Russian President Vladimir Putin for alleged war crimes in Ukraine by issuing a warrant of its own for Khan.
Despite the recent string of high-profile arrest warrants, courtrooms in The Hague are virtually empty and Khan is under investigation for alleged sexual misconduct in the workplace, which he denies.
The ICC also has no police force and relies on its 125 member states to make arrests.
But some European member states have expressed doubts about detaining Netanyahu. Separately this week, Italy arrested an ICC suspect but failed to hand him over to the court.
