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ICC Issues Arrest Warrants for Taliban Leaders Over Gender Persecution

The decision marks the court’s first attempt to hold top Taliban officials to account for systematic bans on women’s rights, targeting LGBTQ people

FILE - A general view of the exterior of the International Criminal Court at The Hague, Netherlands, March 12, 2025. (AP Photo/Omar Havana, File)
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ICC issues arrest warrants for Taliban leaders | Image: AP
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Overview

  • On July 8, 2025 the ICC issued arrest warrants for Supreme Leader Hibatullah Akhundzada and Chief Justice Abdul Hakim Haqqani, accusing them of crimes against humanity
  • The court found reasonable grounds that between August 15, 2021 and January 20, 2025 the two leaders deprived women and girls of education, privacy, family life and fundamental freedoms
  • Taliban policies enforced bans on girls attending secondary school, prohibited women from universities and workplaces, and imposed a vice and virtue law to conceal women’s voices and bodies
  • Individuals expressing nonconforming gender identities or sexualities were also targeted under Taliban gender edicts
  • The ICC must rely on member states to execute the warrants, underscoring challenges to enforcing international justice