Afghan civil society organizations have expressed deep concern over the International Criminal Court’s (ICC) Pre-Trial Chamber II decision to open a separate investigative situation titled “Situation Afghanistan 2.” In a joint statement, these groups warned that this move could disrupt and delay the investigation process, victims’ access to justice, and the pursuit of the main inquiries related to Afghanistan.<\/p>\n
According to the statement, on July 15, 2026, Pre-Trial Chamber II instructed the Office of the Prosecutor to initiate a separate investigation based on referrals from six countries in November 2024, in accordance with Article 53(1) of the Rome Statute. After rejecting the Prosecutor\u2019s request for clarification, on September 3, and subsequently confirmed by the ICC Presidency on October 20, the “Situation Afghanistan 2” case was assigned to the same chamber.<\/p>\n
The civil society groups emphasized that the legal justifications and practical implications of establishing a separate case have not been clearly explained. They questioned why this step was deemed necessary, particularly since the Office of the Prosecutor had already examined existing allegations and issued arrest warrants.<\/p>\n
They warned that splitting the cases could complicate criminal proceedings, undermine victims’ trust in the justice process, and cause delays, repetitions, or disruptions in investigations. There are also concerns that crimes committed before August 2021 may be marginalized, as some of them are no longer a priority for the Prosecutor\u2019s Office.<\/p>\n
These organizations fear that such developments could ultimately benefit perpetrators, including the Taliban and the Islamic State Khorasan Province (ISKP), leaving victims deprived of effective access to justice. It remains unclear whether the main Afghanistan investigation will be affected by the new case, though the ICC Prosecutor’s Office has stated that closing the Afghanistan case in the short term is unlikely.<\/p>\n
Criticizing the lack of sufficient communication with victims regarding the implications of the new case, the groups called for their participation in related decision-making processes. They urged Pre-Trial Chamber II to transparently disclose the legal reasons and procedures for case management and asked the Office of the Prosecutor to clarify the initiation of the new investigation and the conduct of inquiries.<\/p>\n
Furthermore, these bodies requested that the ICC prioritize allegations against international forces and the former government\u2019s security forces, ensuring a clear path to justice for all victims, particularly women and girls.<\/p>\n
It should be noted that the ICC has so far issued arrest warrants for four senior Taliban figures, including the group’s leader. Pre-Trial Chamber II has stated there is reasonable evidence indicating these individuals’ criminal responsibility for ordering, inciting, or encouraging crimes against humanity based on gender persecution.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Afghan civil society warns the ICC’s new separate investigation may delay justice and disrupt accountability for crimes committed in Afghanistan.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":25007,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-25008","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\/25008","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=25008"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25008\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25007"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25008"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25008"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25008"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}