A hearing into the Taliban’s treatment of women in Afghanistan opened on Wednesday in the Spanish capital, seeking to amplify the voices of victims and hold the group accountable for human rights violations.
Over the next three days, the People’s Tribunal for Afghanistan’s Women, a grassroots mechanism, will hear expert evidence and testimony from Afghan survivors as it considers the Taliban’s treatment of women and assesses it against international law.
People’s tribunals—also known as citizens’ tribunals or moral tribunals—are independent, symbolic courts established by civil society to investigate and document serious human rights violations when formal judicial mechanisms are absent, inaccessible, or complicit.
This one was set up by the Permanent Peoples Tribunal, a Rome-based body, at the behest of a group of four Afghan civil society organisations.
“Given the devastating human rights situation for women and girls in Afghanistan and ever-increasing restrictions, Afghan civil society identified a pressing need for redress,” said a statement issued before the tribunal opened.
“Alongside formal judicial processes, engaging a complementary, grassroots mechanism was crucial to amplify the voices of Afghan women and hold the Taliban accountable.”
Since returning to power in August 2021, the Taliban have systematically stripped women and girls of their right to education and work, imposed draconian dress rules and even barred them from leaving their homes unchaperoned.
The opening speech was given by Shaharzad Akbar, an exiled Afghan human rights defender and former chair of the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission, whose group Rawadari was among those that requested the tribunal.
Akbar said the tribunal aimed to resist the normalisation of crimes and to provide a platform for women victims to share their stories of systematic human rights violations.
According to Akbar, women and girls in Afghanistan have experienced gender discrimination and violence for decades, and this tribunal provides an opportunity for their voices to be heard.
She further added that the tribunal is being held after years of effort, and that “gender-based oppression and injustice against women and girls in Afghanistan is its central focus.”
The tribunal is being held based on victims’ testimonies, evidence, and collected documentation, she said, calling on the international community to choose between normalising the Taliban’s crimes or standing with the women of Afghanistan.
