RASC News Agency: Heather Barr, a senior official at Human Rights Watch, stated that the United Nations Human Rights Reporter has called for the criminalization of gender apartheid in his new report on Afghanistan. Ms. Barr wrote that Mr. Bennett has urged governments to file complaints against the Taliban at the International Court of Justice for their violations of women’s rights.
Richard Bennett, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Human Rights for Afghanistan, will present his new report on the state of human rights to the UN Human Rights Council on June 21. Mr. Bennett has not yet released the text of the report. However, Heather Barr, Associate Director of the Women’s Rights Division at Human Rights Watch, published an article on Tuesday detailing its contents.
Ms. Barr wrote that Bennett has strongly urged countries to hold the Taliban accountable for their crimes against women and girls in Afghanistan. According to her: “Bennett has described the Taliban’s discriminatory system as a crime against humanity, stating that it constitutes a widespread and systematic attack against the entire population of Afghanistan.”
In his report, Richard Bennett supports the call from women’s rights activists for gender apartheid to be recognized as a crime under international law by UN member states. Currently, human rights organizations and advocates are working to have gender apartheid recognized as a crime in international law, akin to racial apartheid in South Africa. However, major world governments have yet to support this initiative.
According to Heather Barr, Bennett’s report also calls on governments to “support the International Criminal Court’s investigations into the Taliban’s crimes, including gender-based persecution of women.” Countries are urged to “refrain from normalizing or legitimizing” the Taliban “until they have taken concrete and verified actions in the field of human rights, particularly for women and girls.”
The third Doha meeting, hosted by the United Nations and special representatives for Afghanistan, is scheduled for July 10-11. Previously, a group of international human rights organizations published a letter to the countries participating in the Doha meeting, warning that “the world is dangerously close to accepting the legitimacy of Taliban rule.”
They advised countries not to make concessions to the Taliban regarding women’s rights. It is worth noting that since the Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan, they have detained hundreds of innocent people, committed numerous crimes, closed schools for girls, and shown no adherence to any laws or rights.
