Europe and the attempt to make Taliban accountable for their gender apartheid

Brussels - It is well know that the situation in Afghanistan for women and girls have significantly deteriorated since the takeover by the Taliban in 2021. Women and girls' rights and freedoms, including access to education, employment, healthcare, travel, appearance and behaviours have been banned or heavily restricted.

It is less known that the situation became so desperate that it is now described as "Gender apartheid", notably

following the ban on the participation of women in humanitarian and civilian activities and on the speaking in public spaces. In May 2024, the UN Special Rapporteur published a report about the human rights situation in Afghanistan, particularly highlighting an institutionalised system of discrimination, segregation, disrespect for human dignity and exclusion of women and girls in Afghanistan's society.

The year 2025 marked a turning point, shaping, in an unprecedented scenario, a possible crime of "gender apartheid", still to be agreed by the international community and much debated in Europe.   

On 23 January 2025, the International Criminal Court announced the filing of two applications for the arrest warrants against the Supreme Leader of the Taliban, Haibatullah Akhundzada, and the Chief Justice of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, Abdul Hakim Haqqani. Both warrants are based on the crime against humanity of persecution on gender grounds, under Article 7(1)(h) of the Rome Statute, which, in spite of criticism by Washington, remain a cornerstone of Europe (EU, UK, Norway and Switzerland) foreign policy.

On 8 July 2025, ICC Pre-Trial Chamber II issued warrants of arrest for Mr Akhundzada, and Mr Haqqani, who have exercised de facto authority in Afghanistan from at least 15 August 2021. The Pre-Trial Chamber II ruled that there are reasonable grounds to believe that both bear responsibility for ordering, inducing or soliciting the crime against humanity of persecution on gender grounds against girls, women and other persons non-conforming with the Taliban’s policy on gender, gender identity or expression. Furthermore, both and on political grounds against persons perceived as “allies of girls and women”.

No country has directly sanctioned Afghanistan as a state, but some have targeted sanctions applied to the Taliban leadership. At the UN General Assembly in May 2024, Canada, Germany, Australia and the Netherlands announced that they are taking the Taliban-led Afghanistan to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) over their severe violations of women’s and girls’ rights in Afghanistan. This has been filed under the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), a landmark international treaty adopted by the UN General Assembly in 1979 and enforced in 1981. Afghanistan ratified CEDAW in 2003, making this legal action enforceable given the Taliban’s violations of women’s and girls’ human rights. CEDAW forms the legal basis for action in prosecuting the Taliban-led Afghanistan. This is the first time that a country is being taken to court by another over these gender apartheid violations. The case holds Afghanistan accountable as a state party under international law and does not confer legitimacy on the Taliban regime.

Gender apartheid is currently prosecuted in practice as gender persecution (ICC) and pursued as a CEDAW violation (ICJ). A free-standing "gender apartheid" crime exists only as a proposed treaty amendment, not yet in force.

Regarding the above mentioned proposed treaty to prevent and punish Crimes Against Humanity, the first UN Preparatory meeting was held in January 2026, forming the groundwork for amendments and full negotiations on a draft that has been under consideration since 2019. This treaty would expand on the current ICC Rome Treaty framework, expanding the Rome Statute's apartheid definition from solely affecting a "racial group" (Article 1(7)(h)) to also cover "gender group". UN Member States have issued statements on their positions to codify gender apartheid. Some States and advocates specifically favour adding language that specifically recognises gender apartheid as an international crime against humanity. That presents an opportunity to fill a gap in international law to protect the rights, and lives, of women and girls around the world – especially in Afghanistan. The second UN Preparatory session will take place in April 2027.

EU and EU Member State are taking several initiatives and are somehow on the lead: Germany and the Netherlands, together with Canada and Australi,a are the states that brought the CEDAW claim against the Taliban at the ICJ (under Paragraph 1(b)). This is currently the most concrete legal action by EU Member States specifically targeting Afghanistan over gender-based violations. 

The Nordic states and Spain, alongside non-EU states Colombia, the Philippines and Australia, expressed openness during the January 2026 Prep Comm to including new gender-based crimes in the treaty, without all committing to the "gender apartheid" label specifically.

At the UN Sixth Committee, Malta has tabled specific proposed treaty text at the UN Sixth Committee extending the Rome Statute's apartheid definition from "racial group" to also cover "gender group". The EU Council supported moving the Crimes Against Humanity Treaty to negotiation and has called it a genuine gap in international law, but its public statements have focused on procedural/definitional points - rather than explicitly endorsing the gender apartheid amendment as an EU-wide position.

In May 2026, the European Parliament a resolution labelling Taliban's treatment of women as institutionalised gender persecution and gender apartheid, calling for enforcement of the ICC arrest warrants and, on the Council side, to extend EU human-rights sanctions (travel bans, asset freezes) to Taliban leaders.

Moreover, since December 2022, some EU countries have been granting refugee status to all female Afghan asylum-seekers, solely based on the grounds of gender. This decision is based on the level of discrimination that Afghan women face in Afghanistan, which is deemed sufficiently serious to amount to persecution of a social group, as defined in the 1951 Refugee Convention, and fulfilling the requirements for granting refugee status.

Notably, Denmark, Sweden and Finland recognise all female Afghans as refugees. This position is a consequence of a milestone decision, in October 2024, of the Court of Justice of the European Union ruling that the systemic discrimination faced by Afghan women under the Taliban's rule amounts to persecution under EU asylum law.

Most of the citizens in Europe looks more interested in other issues, such as Palestine, Ukraine or Iran. Yet, the diplomatic activities on Afghanistan are also supported by some civil society groups: in December 2025, in Madrid, the People's Tribunal for Women of Afghanistan delivered a symbolic judgment on Afghanistan, finding the de-facto Taliban authorities guilty of crimes against humanity, including gender persecution, gender apartheid, torture and arbitrary detention, calling on the UN to explicitly codify gender apartheid as an international crime.

It is difficult to make a difference on the ground and reverse the awful persecution inflicted to women and girls in Afghanistan (but also to minorities, children, many civilians). However, at least, through the combination of updated international law and people's solidarity, Europe is trying to make it carved in stone that what Taliban are doing in the name of their own understanding of Islam cannot be, be considered human - ever and anywhere.

Niccolò Rinaldi

Society and Diplomatic Review - European Union

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