GENEVA, Feb 26 - A decree issued by Afghanistan’s de facto rulers threatens to further restrict rights and freedoms across the country, with particular consequences for women and girls, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights said on Thursday.
Volker Turk told delegates at a Human Rights Council session that a recent directive signed last month by Hibatullah Akhundzada, the Taliban supreme leader, ‘‘defines several crimes and punishments that contravene Afghanistan’s international legal obligations.’’ He said the order prescribes corporal punishment for a range of offences, including within the domestic setting, and thereby legitimises violence against women and children.
According to Turk, the decree broadens the list of acts that can attract the death penalty. It also makes it an offence to criticize the de facto leadership and its policies, measures he said are in direct violation of freedoms of expression and assembly. Detailed provisions of the text have not been released by the Taliban’s Ministry of Justice or Supreme Court, and the full wording of the decree was not available to outside observers at the time of Turk’s remarks.
The Afghan administration did not provide an immediate response to requests for comment on the decree. Turk urged the authorities to repeal the order, to introduce a moratorium on executions and to end the use of corporal punishment. He framed the situation facing women and girls as persecution within a system he characterised as analogous to gender apartheid.
Representatives of the Taliban have previously described women’s rights as matters for internal handling and have said such issues should be resolved locally. Turk’s assessment underscored a widening gap between such official assertions and the concerns voiced by the United Nations human rights office.
In addition to the decree, Turk highlighted a recent escalation in cross-border violence, noting the killing of 13 civilians in Pakistani airstrikes as an example of rising civilian harm. He said this trend of increasing casualties in clashes involving Pakistani military forces is deeply worrying and underlined the need for immediate political engagement to prevent further escalation.
Pakistan has said it carried out airstrikes inside Afghanistan to target what it described as militant safe havens, an allegation denied by Kabul. The Taliban authorities condemned the strikes as breaches of Afghanistan’s sovereignty and signalled they would respond at what they called an appropriate time. Turk’s intervention at the Geneva meeting linked the human rights concerns stemming from the decree with the broader regional security tensions arising from cross-border military actions.
Reporting note: Additional reporting and writing contributions were made by Mohammad Yunus Yawar. The article was edited by Ariba Shahid and Philippa Fletcher.