On September 25, Canada, along with Australia, Germany, and the Netherlands, announced their formal decision to take the Taliban to the UN’s highest court, the International Court of Justice (ICJ), for its blatant discrimination against women.
The four countries accuse the Taliban authorities of “gross and systemic” violations of women’s rights under the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), adopted in 1979 and signed by Afghanistan in 2003.
Since its return to power in August 2021, the Taliban has shocked the world with the implementation of the law on “virtue and vice,” which aims at completely erasing women from the public sphere. Enforced by the “morality police,” this law includes restrictions such as:
- barring women from accessing secondary and university education;
- prohibiting women from travelling more than 72 kilometres without a male relative;
- prohibiting women from participating in sports and from entering public areas like parks;
- barring women from raising their voices in public and from looking at men other than their husbands or relatives.
Since the Taliban authorities seized power, it has been reported that nearly 60,000 women-owned businesses were negatively impacted by these restrictions. Amnesty International reports that, in a matter of two months (between June and July 2023), nearly 4,500 women were dismissed from jobs in education.Numerous UN agencies have also reported a sobering surge in forced marriages, child marriages, gender violence, and femicide.
As a result of these accusations, and the aforementioned restrictions, Afghanistan under the Taliban is considered to be the most restrictive regime in its treatment of women. If the hearing proceeds, this will be the first time in history that a country is taken to the ICJ for its violations of CEDAW and will therefore make a solid legal precedent in international law regarding gender prosecution.
The decision to take the Taliban authorities to court comes at a time when many Afghan women and activists feel that the world has forgotten about their struggle due to the international community’s silence on the issue. Living under such restrictive regulations, women do what they can to resist. Some women hold secret classes, while others participate in public campaigns where they share their singing on social media platforms as a protest against recent prohibitions from speaking in public. Some groups continue trying to attract the world’s attention through interviews and activism abroad.
According to the rules of the international court, once the plea is submitted against a party, there is a waiting period of six months in order for both parties to solve their issue without court interference. If this goes unanswered, the case proceeds before the ICJ. While the ICJ is a powerful international body, the rulings of which are legally binding for member-states, it lacks the means to actually enforce its decisions.
The decision to take the Taliban to court has been applauded around the world. In fact, 22 countries have issued a joint statement condemning the Taliban’s violations of the CEDAW: “We […] condemn the gross and systematic human rights violations and abuses in Afghanistan, particularly the gender-based discrimination against women and girls.” But what can this proceeding actually do to help Afghan women in their struggle against this “gender apartheid?”
The Taliban authorities can, in theory, simply ignore the proceeding. However, the Taliban has long been seeking international recognition, which has not been granted. Thus, being taken to court for human rights violations might put a higher price on the Taliban’s practices by inciting other countries to adopt unfavourable diplomatic attitudes towards the regime through sanctions such as maintaining travel bans for members of the Taliban regime, keeping the assets of the Afghanistan Central Bank frozen, limiting corporate cooperation with other countries thus disrupting the production chain of certain goods, and so on.
Some speculate that the recent increase in restrictions issued by the Taliban is actually a strategic play used by the authorities to bargain in negotiations with other states, possibly within the context of the international court proceedings.
The decision to take the Taliban to ICJ marks a significant shift in the way the international community reacts to such blatant human rights violations and gender-based discrimination. By taking risks that can cost them their freedom or even life, the brave Afghan women have brought the issue to the fore of international attention and have initiated tangible legal actions to challenge the wrongs they face.