The ICC issued four arrest warrants for the Taliban’s abuse of women and girls

In a decision on Monday, judges unsealed warrants for Taliban Supreme Leader Haibatullah Akhundzada and Chief Judge Abdul Hakim Haqqani, whose whereabouts were announced in July 2025, and for two other suspects, Habibullah Agha and Neda Mohammad Nadim.

The four warrants were issued between July and September 2025.

The court said there were reasonable grounds to believe the four men were criminally responsible for ordering, encouraging or soliciting persecution, a crime against humanity under article 7(1)(h) of the Rome Statute, the ICC’s founding treaty.

Punished on the basis of gender

It said the abuse was carried out on gender grounds against girls, women and other people who did not comply with the Taliban government’s de facto policies regarding gender, gender identity or expression. This is also done on political grounds against people who are seen as “allies of girls and women”.

According to the court, the crimes were committed in Afghanistan from August 15, 2021, when the Taliban seized power, until at least January 20, 2025.

Violation of basic rights

The judges found that the Taliban had implemented policies that led to serious violations of the basic rights and freedoms of the civilian population, related to killings, imprisonment, torture, rape and enforced disappearances.

Although some Taliban rules apply to everyone, the court said girls and women were specifically targeted because of their gender.

Through decrees and decrees, they are severely deprived of their rights to education, privacy and family life as well as freedom of movement, expression, thought, belief and religion.

Other Afghans were targeted because certain expressions of sexuality or gender identity were deemed to be contrary to Taliban policy.

The judges also found that people perceived to oppose these policies – even passively, or by not taking action – were targeted as political opponents. They include those described as “allies of girls and women”.

Systemic loss

In the order, the judges said that the definition of gender in the Rome Statute goes beyond biological ideas about sex, in line with current developments in international law.

They say they must acknowledge the socially constructed roles, behaviours, expectations and hierarchies traditionally associated with people because of their sex – commonly known as gender norms – when assessing gender-based abuse.

The court added to that This abuse does not only include direct violence, but also systemic and institutionalized lossesincluding the application of discriminatory social norms.

ICC prosecutors filed the first two warrants on January 23, 2025, and the judge issued the warrants on July 8 of that year, initially under seal to protect victims and witnesses and preserve the trial process, although the court disclosed that such warrants existed.

At the time, the ICC Prosecutor said further appeals against other senior Taliban members would follow.