Towards an accusation of "crimes against humanity" against Afghan women?

"Unfortunately, I am not in a position to report an improvement in the human rights situation, especially not for women and girls (...) who are marginalized." These are the words used on Monday 19 June by the UN Special Rapporteur on human rights in Afghanistan, who presented a new report on the situation of women in the country, nearly two years after the Taliban came to power in August 2021.

At the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, Richard Bennett asked states to consider whether the Taliban's "gender apartheid" against women could constitute an international crime.

"Serious violations of the human rights of women and girls and the authorities' harsh enforcement of restrictive measures may constitute a crime against humanity of gender persecution," Bennett said. "Severe, systematic and institutionalized discrimination against women and girls is at the heart of the Taliban's ideology and rules."

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"It is imperative not to look the other way, we must do everything in our power to address and reverse the grave violation of the human rights of women and girls in Afghanistan," he said.

Characterizing the Taliban's actions as persecution rather than gender apartheid is interesting: the first term, if formally adopted by the UN, would make the Taliban responsible for crimes under international law – and therefore likely to eventually be tried before the International Criminal Court.

In this perspective, the Taliban's policy against women and girls could violate the Rome Statute – to which Afghanistan acceded in February 2003 – and more specifically article 7(1)(h). The Act defines as a crime against humanity any "persecution of any identifiable group or collectivity on political, racial, national, ethnic, cultural, religious or gender-based grounds".

" READ ALSO Afghanistan: behind the ban on women in NGOs, Taliban divided

"Part of the Afghan population has been erased by the Taliban"

This is also what Amnesty International and the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) want. The two NGOs said in a report released on 26 May that "the Taliban's severe restrictions and unlawful repression of the rights of women and girls must be investigated, as they may be crimes under international law."

Amnesty and the ICJ denounced in particular the "draconian restrictions" imposed by the Taliban on Afghan women and girls, "the use of imprisonment, enforced disappearances, torture and other forms of ill-treatment".

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For Agnès Callamard, Secretary General of Amnesty International, "this is a war against women (...) subject to bans on free work and movement, imprisoned, disappeared and tortured, including for speaking out against these policies and resisting repression. These are crimes under international law."

For nearly two years, the Taliban's return to power has manifested itself in an increase in measures that violate women's rights: initially excluded from the public space, Afghan women then lost access to education after college. The Taliban then banned them from working for NGOs and the United Nations, among others.

"It's good to ask the question of gender persecution, but it's still not enough. These things should have been said from the beginning of the Taliban's return to power in Afghanistan," said Shoukria Haidar, a Franco-Afghan feminist. "Afghan women are suffering enormously: overnight, they fell, were no longer allowed to go out, to work... Part of the Afghan population has been erased by the Taliban."

" READ ALSO The ordeal of Afghan women: under the Taliban regime, the decline of rights and freedoms

The president of the association Negar - support for the women of Afghanistan also deplores the fact that the international community "cowardly accepts" that the Taliban remain in control of Afghanistan: "They are not officially recognized but we do business with them, it is unacceptable from countries that claim to be democratic."

As it stands, the status quo seems to remain between the UN and the Taliban, referred to as the "de facto authorities" of Afghanistan in Richard Bennett's report. The latter recommends, however, that they "ensure that (the country) complies with its international human rights obligations by rescinding all discriminatory decrees and instructions issued since August 2021 that specifically target women and girls." A recommendation that is not binding to date.

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