Afghanistan

Since the Taliban’s return to power in 2021, Afghanistan has been engulfed by pervasive and systematic patterns of human rights violations and international crimes. Civilians continue to face arbitrary arrest and detention, torture and sexual violence, enforced disappearances, extrajudicial executions, and a regime of gender persecution, characterized by severe, widespread violations of the rights of women and girls.  

More than 100 decrees designed to erase women and girls from public life have restricted their access to education, employment, movement, justice and participation in society. The August 2024 “Law on the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice” (PVPV) restricted women’s movement without a mahram, mandated full body covering, and prohibited women’s voices being heard in public. Raids and threats have driven female NGO staff from their jobs, crippling essential services.  

The Taliban have completely transformed the Republic-era legal system and judiciary and dismantled the specialised legal frameworks and institutions relating to women’s rights. The Taliban’s January 2026 Decree No. 12 on the Criminal Procedure Code for Courts has further dismantled remaining judicial protections, deepening impunity and leaving victims and survivors with limited avenues for redress inside Afghanistan. 

The current accountability ecosystem for Afghanistan spans several important but still developing avenues, including arrest warrants issued by Pre-Trial Chamber II of the International Criminal Court against the Taliban’s Supreme Leader and Chief Justice for gender persecution as a crime against humanity, the CEDAW initiative that could result in proceedings before the International Court of Justice, the newly established Independent Investigative Mechanism for Afghanistan, and people-centred initiatives such as the People’s Tribunal for Women in Afghanistan.  

Though Afghanistan’s women and girls are in sharp international focus, yet there is limited access to justice and accountability for what occurred in the past and is ongoing. A robust framework of meaningful, long-term accountability is needed to break this cycle of impunity and restore a measure of dignity to victims and survivors.

LAW has contributed across key consultative processes undertaken thus far, for the survivor-centred design and operationalisation of the Independent Investigative Mechanism for Afghanistan (IIM-A).  

Drawing on direct experience collaborating with the IIIM for Syria and the Independent Investigative Mechanism for Myanmar (IIMM), LAW has provided insights and lessons learnt on a series of practical points covering mandate implementation, evidentiary strategy, engagement with civil society, and information sharing. The aim is to support the development of the Mechanism so that it can be technically credible, its information usable by courts/ judicial fora, and capable of sustained cooperation with a wide range of actors, including Afghan civil society, under challenging conditions.

On 18 June, LAW Founder and Executive Director Antonia Mulvey spoke at a side event co-hosted by the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan Mission to the United Nations in Geneva and Austria, entitled “Strengthening Coordination, Survivor-Centred Accountability, and Prevention in Light of the IIM-A’s Operationalisation.” Ms Mulvey highlighted the role of the frontline legal organizations for the newly established IIM-A to succeed. 

“I believe that if civil society frontline organisations work with victims and survivors and UN mechanisms and Member States, we can achieve successes even in a world where today, let’s be clear, international law is being violated daily.”