UN high commissioner supports criminalizing gender apartheid amid Taliban women's rights restrictions

Volker Türk, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, stated at the Human Rights Council session in Geneva on Feb. 26 that he supports criminalizing gender apartheid as a crime against humanity to address the situation in Afghanistan. Türk described the discrimination and repression faced by Afghan women and girls as systematic persecution reminiscent of apartheid, but based on gender rather than race. He expressed concern over Taliban laws expanding violence against women and children, and also highlighted civilian casualties from border clashes between Taliban forces and Pakistan.

Richard Bennett, UN Special Rapporteur on human rights in Afghanistan, presented a report on women's access to health services, warning of a deteriorating human rights situation, increased corporal punishments, and executions by the Taliban.

Susan Ferguson, UN Women's Special Representative in Afghanistan, condemned Taliban Order No. 12, which bans women from working in national and international NGOs. She said the order, linked to a new penal code, eliminates legal equality between men and women, places husbands as supreme authority, limits accountability for domestic violence to visible injuries only, and requires women to appear before male judges with a male guardian.

Thirty-three Afghan human rights and women's rights organizations, including the Afghan Women's Voice Movement and the Lantern of Freedom for Afghan Women, sent an open letter to UN General Assembly President Ana Lena Baerbock. They described the Taliban's policies as a deliberate, phased imposition of full-scale gender apartheid, denying the humanity and dignity of half the population, and constituting an international crime. The groups called for criminalization of gender apartheid, prosecution of Taliban leaders, and an end to engagement or normalization with the Taliban.

Amit Haliwi, an Israeli Knesset member, told Afghanistan International that no international legitimacy should be granted to the Taliban, urging support for opponents and calling on India to halt its support.