Zarshad Akbar, the executive director of the Tolerance Organization, says pursuing cases against Taliban leaders in international courts could prevent countries from normalising ties with the group and send a clear message to Afghan women that their repression has not been ignored.<\/p>\n
Speaking on Thursday at a meeting in Madrid, Spain, marking the first anniversary of the “People’s Tribunal for Afghan Women,” she said arrest warrants for Taliban leaders would carry serious meaning for women who have been detained, beaten or tortured for holding secret classes, even if some see such decisions as “merely on paper.”<\/p>\n
According to Akbar, some Taliban leaders are also named in the indictment of the People’s Tribunal for Afghan Women, and she views this process as a sign of gradual progress in holding the group accountable.<\/p>\n
Akbar also referred to the route being pursued at the International Court of Justice, saying Afghanistan is a party to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women, and that Germany, Australia, Canada and the Netherlands have pledged to hold the Taliban accountable over violations of women’s rights.<\/p>\n
The executive director of the Tolerance Organization said she had spoken with Germany’s legal team, but had received few details about the case. At the same time, she said she doubted that Germany’s policy of deporting Afghans to Afghanistan had affected its stance toward the Taliban.<\/p>\n
Akbar said activists are trying, through contact with the media, parliament and German officials, to pressure Germany to fulfil its commitment to support Afghan women and girls, and stressed that if Germany does not continue down this path, countries such as Australia could act.<\/p>\n
She also called on the Spanish government to use available legal avenues to support Afghan women, saying some of these routes may be faster than the process pursued by other countries.<\/p>\n
Akbar criticised countries that speak about women’s rights while at the same time engaging with the Taliban over the deportation of Afghans. She said the international community should hold governments accountable for these “double standards” and specifically asked what became of Germany’s promise to Afghan women and girls two years ago, and whether Spain has used all available options to stand in solidarity with them.<\/p>\n
The “People’s Tribunal for Afghan Women” is a symbolic initiative held with the participation of a number of activists and human rights defenders, aimed at documenting and highlighting allegations of violations against Afghan women and girls in public forums.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Zarshad Akbar says legal action against Taliban leaders could block normalisation and signal support for Afghan women.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":23527,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23528","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-important-news","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23528","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23528"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23528\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23527"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23528"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23528"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23528"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}