Posts tagged: Human Rights

Inside the Islamic Emirate’s Penal Code: Crime, punishment and authority in Afghanistan

Kate Clark •

The Islamic Emirate has circulated a new penal code to Afghanistan’s courts, standardising punishments for everything from insulting the ulema to forgery, taking and giving bribes and casting the evil eye. The Code was leaked to the human rights organisation, Rawadari, by someone in the government, presumably concerned about its implications for human rights and the rule […]

26 Feb 2026

Afghan Women Spoke: A People’s Tribunal listened

Rachel Reid •

Afghan women may have been silenced in their own country, but in December 2025, they were given a very public platform to tell the world about life under the Taliban – The People’s Tribunal for the Women of Afghanistan. The tribunal took place in Europe, but Afghans were able to watch the hearings via satellite […]

9 Jan 2026

Law, Control, Fear – and some Defiance: Citizens and enforcers talk about the ‘promotion of virtue and prevention of vice’

Kate Clark • AAN Team •

It has been more than a year since the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan introduced a new vice and virtue law. This law lays out what behaviour and actions the Islamic Emirate deems obligatory or forbidden for Afghan men and women. It gives its enforcers wide-ranging powers to both police and punish ‘wrongdoers,’ who have no […]

21 Dec 2025

Afghan Women Spoke: The People’s Tribunal for Afghan Women listened

Rachel Reid •

The judges of the People’s Tribunal for the Women of Afghanistan have found the Taliban guilty of the crime against humanity of gender persecution. Although this civil society tribunal does not have the force of law, it was conceived as a platform that could powerfully amplify the voices of women from both inside and outside […]

13 Dec 2025

Manoeuvring Through the Cracks: The Afghan human rights movement under the Islamic Emirate

Rachel Reid •

The end of the Islamic Republic was a catastrophe for Afghanistan’s human rights movement, with nearly all human rights defenders thrown into exile, fearing for their lives. The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (IEA) combines an austere interpretation of Islam with ultra-conservative social mores, resulting in a highly authoritarian state with strict laws and practices. While […]

15 Jun 2025

A Force for Good, or Source of Coercion? An Islamic scholar reflects on the Emirate’s morality law

John Butt •

The Islamic Emirate’s law on the Propagation of Virtue and Prevention of Vice lays out the behaviour and actions which it deems obligatory or forbidden for Afghan men and women. It also lays out the powers of the enforcers, who have been given extensive authority to impose penalties on those they deem wrongdoers. Today, we […]

21 Apr 2025

Reigniting the Flames of Justice: ICC seeks arrest of the Islamic Emirate’s Supreme Leader and Chief Justice

Rachel Reid • Roxanna Shapour •

The Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, Karim Khan, has requested arrest warrants for two of the most senior leaders of the Islamic Emirate. Khan said that there were “reasonable grounds” to believe that Supreme Leader Hibatullah Akhundzada and Chief Justice Abdul Hakim Haqqani bear “criminal responsibility for the crime against humanity of persecution on […]

24 Jan 2025

War Crimes in the First Two Decades of the Afghan Conflict: Republishing the UN Mapping Report 

Kate Clark •

In 2004, a major report mapping the war crimes and human rights violations committed in Afghanistan between 1978 and 2001 was published by the United Nations before being swiftly taken down under political pressure, allegedly from then president Hamed Karzai, some of his ministers and foreign backers and from within the UN. What became known as […]

15 Aug 2024

Human Rights Situation in Afghanistan: October – December 2023 Update

UNAMA, 22 January 2024 This is another update on Afghanistan’s human rights situation under the Taleban. UNAMA’s main findings include: The report also looks at “targeted attacks against Hazaras”, “Forced expulsions of Afghans from Pakistan”, corporal punishment and the Taleban’s application of ‘justice.’

22 Jan 2024

Gender Persecution in Afghanistan: Could it come under the ICC’s Afghanistan investigation?

Ehsan Qaane •

Since their return to power in August 2021, the Taleban have enacted successive laws and orders which apply to women and girls, but not to men and boys. Earlier this month, United Nations experts reported their assessment that these measures violated women and girls’ rights to education, work, freedom of movement, health, bodily autonomy and […]

26 May 2023

Lashing, Beating, Stoning: UNAMA tracks corporal punishment and the death penalty in Afghanistan

Kate Clark •

A new United Nations report on capital and corporal punishment has detailed the widespread use of corporal punishment delivered ad hoc by non-judicial authorities, such as the police and ‘Vice and Virtue’ officials. It also documents a rise in corporal punishment ordered by judges since November 2022 when the Taleban’s Supreme Leader encouraged the use […]

8 May 2023

The May 2023 Doha meeting: How should the outside world deal with the Taleban?

Kate Clark •

United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres is due to host a two-day meeting on Afghanistan with foreign envoys, beginning tomorrow, 1 May 2023, in the capital of Qatar, Doha. The Taleban have not been invited. AAN understands from sources from invited countries that the idea for the meeting emerged from visits to Kabul in January by […]

30 Apr 2023