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In a monumental decision, Canada, Australia, Germany, and the Netherlands are set to initiate legal proceedings against the Taliban at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) over allegations of gender discrimination and apartheid, the Guardian Newspaper reported Wednesday from the UN. This would mark the first instance where the ICJ, located in The Hague, will witness a country brought to trial by others specifically on the grounds of gender discrimination.
The announcement was made at the recent UN General Assembly side event, where actress Meryl Streep highlighted the harsh restrictions faced by Afghan women, stating that animals enjoy more freedom than Afghan women who are barred from public parks. Streep said:
Proponents of this unprecedented legal action emphasise that even if the Taliban elect to disregard the ICJ’s jurisdiction, a ruling could still deter other nations from establishing diplomatic ties with the Taliban regime. As signatories to the ICJ, member states are implicitly expected to comply with its directives.
Concerns have been raised regarding previous UN discussions with the Taliban, during which women’s rights issues were allegedly side-lined to encourage the Taliban’s participation. This legal initiative has garnered support from prominent female foreign ministers, including Penny Wong of Australia, Annalena Baerbock of Germany, and Mélanie Joly of Canada, with backing from Dutch Foreign Minister Caspar Veldkamp.
Recent actions by the Taliban, which include prohibiting Afghan women from speaking publicly, have spurred online protests led by Afghan women using their voices in defiance.
Last month, new Taliban-enforced regulations further curtailed women’s freedoms, mandating full-body coverage for women leaving home and banning them from singing or raising their voices publicly.
Fereshta Abassi, Afghanistan Researcher at Human Rights Watch commented that this step “may mark the beginning of a path to justice at the World Court for the Taliban’s egregious human rights violations against Afghan women and girls”.
If the ICJ determines that Afghanistan has violated the CEDAW, it could lead to individual or collective actions by other countries—though likely non-military—in response to this violation. Moreover, such a ruling might discourage nations from deporting Afghan women and girls seeking asylum, instead prompting them to grant refugee status to these individuals based on gender discrimination alone.
Afghanistan, which ratified this convention in 2003, is now expected to respond to these allegations within a six-month window before the ICJ conducts a formal hearing, potentially recommending provisional measures thereafter. The pathway to holding the Taliban to account has been a long time coming. The momentum to hold the Taliban to account and end their impunity is growing.
In recent days a series of researchers from the Ham Diley Campaign and Monash University in Australia released a Handbook on Universal Jurisdiction: Holding The Taliban Accountable For International Crimes in a further move to find way to bring the Taliban to account, recalling domestic frameworks and applicability of the principle of universal jurisdiction by states such as the UK, Germany, Australia and Norway. This follows the European Parliament’s adoption of a resolution on September 19, which passed with 565 votes in favor, eight against, and 43 abstentions. The resolution acknowledges the worsening conditions for Afghan women and girls after the Taliban implemented their law on the “Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice”.
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The announcement was made at the recent UN General Assembly side event, where actress Meryl Streep highlighted the harsh restrictions faced by Afghan women, stating that animals enjoy more freedom than Afghan women who are barred from public parks. Streep said:
The nations involved in the legal action express a willingness to engage diplomatically with the Taliban to address and eradicate gender-based discrimination. However, they remain firm in their resolve to seek justice through an ICJ hearing if diplomatic efforts fall short. These proceedings are rooted in the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), which was implemented after being ratified by the UN General Assembly in 1979 and brought into effect in 1981.
Proponents of this unprecedented legal action emphasise that even if the Taliban elect to disregard the ICJ’s jurisdiction, a ruling could still deter other nations from establishing diplomatic ties with the Taliban regime. As signatories to the ICJ, member states are implicitly expected to comply with its directives.
Concerns have been raised regarding previous UN discussions with the Taliban, during which women’s rights issues were allegedly side-lined to encourage the Taliban’s participation. This legal initiative has garnered support from prominent female foreign ministers, including Penny Wong of Australia, Annalena Baerbock of Germany, and Mélanie Joly of Canada, with backing from Dutch Foreign Minister Caspar Veldkamp.
Recent actions by the Taliban, which include prohibiting Afghan women from speaking publicly, have spurred online protests led by Afghan women using their voices in defiance.
Last month, new Taliban-enforced regulations further curtailed women’s freedoms, mandating full-body coverage for women leaving home and banning them from singing or raising their voices publicly.
Fereshta Abassi, Afghanistan Researcher at Human Rights Watch commented that this step “may mark the beginning of a path to justice at the World Court for the Taliban’s egregious human rights violations against Afghan women and girls”.
If the ICJ determines that Afghanistan has violated the CEDAW, it could lead to individual or collective actions by other countries—though likely non-military—in response to this violation. Moreover, such a ruling might discourage nations from deporting Afghan women and girls seeking asylum, instead prompting them to grant refugee status to these individuals based on gender discrimination alone.
Afghanistan, which ratified this convention in 2003, is now expected to respond to these allegations within a six-month window before the ICJ conducts a formal hearing, potentially recommending provisional measures thereafter. The pathway to holding the Taliban to account has been a long time coming. The momentum to hold the Taliban to account and end their impunity is growing.
In recent days a series of researchers from the Ham Diley Campaign and Monash University in Australia released a Handbook on Universal Jurisdiction: Holding The Taliban Accountable For International Crimes in a further move to find way to bring the Taliban to account, recalling domestic frameworks and applicability of the principle of universal jurisdiction by states such as the UK, Germany, Australia and Norway. This follows the European Parliament’s adoption of a resolution on September 19, which passed with 565 votes in favor, eight against, and 43 abstentions. The resolution acknowledges the worsening conditions for Afghan women and girls after the Taliban implemented their law on the “Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice”.
The post Canada, Australia, Germany, and the Netherlands set to initiate legal proceedings against Taliban at ICJ appeared first on JURIST - News.
Continue reading...
Note: We don't have any responsibilities about this news. Its been posted here by Feed Reader and we had no controls and checking on it. And because News posted here will be deleted automatically after 21 days, threads are closed so that no one spend time to post and discuss here. You can always check the source and discuss in their site.