Over 20 countries have voiced their support for proposed legal action against the Taliban over systematic human rights violations in Afghanistan, particularly the gender-based discrimination against women and girls, the Associated Press reported Thursday.
“We condemn the gross and systematic human rights violations and abuses in Afghanistan, particularly the gender-based discrimination against women and girls,” the countries said in a joint statement.
Australia, Canada, Germany, and the Netherlands are leading the effort to hold the Taliban accountable for violating a U.N. convention on women’s rights, to which Afghanistan is a signatory. The legal proceedings, announced Wednesday on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly in New York, mark an unprecedented move to address the Taliban’s treatment of women.
Since taking power in 2021, the Taliban have barred women and girls from receiving education beyond sixth grade, restricted their access to public spaces, and prohibited them from most jobs. In August, the Taliban’s Ministry of Vice and Virtue issued new laws requiring women to cover their faces in public and banning them from raising their voices.
