Australia to take Taliban Afghanistan to International Court

Australia and three further countries are taking Taliban-controlled Afghanistan to the International Court of Justice for gender discrimination, over its oppressive laws against women. 

The country, alongside Canada, Germany and the Netherlands, has taken legal action against Taliban-controlled Afghanistan and could see all four countries taking the militant group to court. 

Three out of the four countries involved in the international legal action, Australia, Germany and Canada, have women as foreign ministers. The countries argue that the Taliban has violated the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women and has systematically abused the rights of women and girls since the group seized power in August 2021.

All four of the countries have issued a diplomatic note to the Taliban, which aims to launch negotiations on the matter. The country will likely have six months to respond.

Women’s rights advocates have praised the decision and have urged the international community to increase pressure on the Taliban after the regime introduced degrading “virtue” laws against women and girls which ban them from showing their faces, speaking or singing in public. 

Foreign Minister Penny Wong said that the group of countries are not going to “stand by and allow the situation in Afghanistan to become a ‘new normal’”. 

Wong said: “The Taliban has demonstrated contempt for the human rights and fundamental freedoms of women and girls in Afghanistan, through a campaign of sustained and systematic oppression.”

Fereshta Abbasi, Afghanistan researcher at Human Rights Watch, said that the announcement “may mark the beginning of a path to justice at the World Court for the Taliban’s egregious human rights violations against Afghan women and girls”. 

She added: “It is vitally important for other countries to register their support for this action and for them to involve Afghan women as the process moves forward.”

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