Human Rights Council – 58^th session
Item 4: General Debate
Joint Statement on Accountability in Afghanistan
Statement delivered by Iceland on behalf of a group of countries

Mr. President,

I am honoured to deliver this statement on behalf of Iceland, South Africa and Chile and a cross-regional group of countries.

Afghanistan today is facing the world’s most serious crackdown on women’s rights within the context of a worsening human rights and humanitarian crisis, with systematic and widespread human rights violations, many of which may constitute crimes under international law. It demands our urgent attention and action.

As the Special Rapporteur reported to this Council, systematic gender oppression has been further expanded and institutionalised through new measures over the past year, including the so-called law on the propagation of virtue and the prevention of vice.

Women now face overwhelming restrictions on their right to work, to education, to freedom of expression and movement, to health services as the Taliban seek to erase them from public life. They have been banned from singing in public, even having their voices heard outside their homes.

The Taliban have detained women and girls for not abiding by the prescribed dress code, and Special Procedures have reported that some of those detained have been held incommunicado for days and subjected to “physical violence, threats and intimidation.”

As this Council recognised by consensus in October last year, these crimes may amount to gender persecution.

Minorities also face marginalization, underrepresentation, discrimination and lack of protection; and the Taliban have continued to deepen broader restrictions on civic space, and arbitrarily detained and tortured journalists and other critics, among other violations.

We note with alarm the Special Rapporteur’s conclusion that the international community’s failure to hold the Taliban accountable has emboldened them in their increasing oppression of women and girls, and the broader rights crackdown. This conclusion, too, was reiterated by the Office of the High Commissioner in its most recent report, where it is stated that the human rights crisis in Afghanistan is rooted in decades of conflict, where a climate of impunity has enabled violations to persist. This conclusion, therefore, demands that this Council considers further action, commensurate with the gravity of the situation guided by the principles elaborated by the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights in this report.

The Special Rapporteur has recommended the creation of an additional independent investigation mechanism, with a comprehensive mandate and broad scope, to support efforts towards criminal accountability, recognising broad calls for such a mechanism among Afghan and international rights groups. Such a mandate would be, as in other situations, complementary to the important ongoing work of the SR.

This call echoes this Council’s own consensus recognition of the need for urgent action to address long-standing impunity for grave past and ongoing international crimes committed in Afghanistan, and to support efforts to hold perpetrators to account, through processes that are comprehensive, multidimensional, gender-responsive and victim-centred, including possibly through the collection and preservation of evidence to support future accountability and transitional justice processes.

As Taliban oppression increases, the Human Rights Council must ensure it is using all the tools available to address the crisis, to support accountability for violations, and to contribute to the prevention of future violations. We call on this Council to take action onthe Special Rapporteur’s recommendation for the creation of an additional independent investigation mechanism, with a comprehensive mandate and broad scope, to support efforts towards criminal accountability.

I thank you.

Permanent Missions:

1. Iceland

2. South Africa

3. Chile

4. Costa Rica

5. Liechtenstein

6. Switzerland

7. Luxembourg

8. Colombia

9. Slovenia

10. Spain

11. Czechia

12. Mexico

13. France

14. Afghanistan