United Nations Human Rights Council
59th Regular Session
Agenda Item 2
Oral Statement under the Enhanced ID on report of SR in Afghanistan
16 June 2025
Mr. Special Rapporteur,
The ICJ and IBAHRI concur with your main findings, including that Afghan women, girls and LGBTIQ+ persons are systematically denied access to justice and human rights protection under Taliban rule.
The Taliban-administered justice system is a tool of repression—entrenching discrimination, punishing survivors of violence, and eliminating pathways to redress. Women and girls, particularly those with disabilities, from minority backgrounds or facing other intersecting forms of discrimination are particularly at risk, often rendered invisible and excluded entirely from what remains of the domestic justice system.
As you make clear, this is a pivotal moment for States to take action on their commitment to gender equality. Justice cannot be delivered by those perpetrating the abuses.
We reiterate our call on this Council to establish, without delay, an independent international investigative mechanism with a comprehensive mandate for past and present violations and abuses, to collect, preserve, and analyse information and evidence, with a gender-sensitive and intersectional lens, and make it available to accountability bodies acting in accordance with human rights and the rule of law.
This Council must not allow gender persecution in Afghanistan to be met with silence and impunity. The world is watching. Without decisive action, Afghan women and girls and LGBTIQ+ persons will be abandoned to face widespread and systematic human rights abuses, including crimes against humanity. The crimes they are enduring must not go unanswered.
Thank you.
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The full ICJ and IBAHRI statements is available for download here.
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