RASC News Agency: Richard Bennett, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in Afghanistan, has asserted in his latest report that the human rights situation in Afghanistan has deteriorated continuously over the past three and a half years under Taliban rule. He emphasizes that despite the Taliban’s initial assurances of adhering to international commitments, the regime has not only sustained its oppressive policies but has systematically intensified its repression of women and girls. According to Bennett, there is no indication of the Taliban retracting their draconian measures. Bennett warns that the global community’s inertia in addressing this crisis has emboldened the Taliban to entrench their authoritarian policies further. The report underscores that the absence of a cohesive and decisive international strategy to confront these egregious human rights violations has exacerbated the Taliban’s impunity, leaving Afghanistani citizens particularly women and girls defenseless against institutionalized discrimination and persecution.
Furthermore, Bennett asserts that the international community’s failure to uphold its legal and moral obligations has had profound ramifications for human rights in Afghanistan, with potentially destabilizing consequences for global security and gender equality. According to the report, the Taliban continues to enforce an extreme and unparalleled system of gender apartheid and exclusion, unprecedented in the modern world. These actions may constitute crimes against humanity, specifically gender-based persecution. Meanwhile, the International Criminal Court’s recent request for arrest warrants against two Taliban officials underscores the severity of international concern regarding the regime’s systematic abuses.
Bennett also highlights the Taliban’s enforcement of the “Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice” law in August 2024, which has imposed sweeping and repressive restrictions on women, girls, and marginalized communities, including men and religious minorities. This law enshrines draconian measures, including the mandatory requirement for women to travel only with a male guardian and bans on women singing or even speaking in public spaces. These prohibitions have severely curtailed access to education and healthcare for women, with the barring of female students from medical training institutions triggering widespread protests across Afghanistan.
