ICC unseals four arrest warrants over Taliban persecution of women and girls

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

The four warrants were issued between July and September 2025.

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

Punished on gender grounds

It says the persecution was carried out on gender grounds against girls, women and other people who did not conform to the de facto Taliban government’s policy on gender, gender identity or expression. It was also carried out on political grounds against people seen as “allies of girls and women”.

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

Violation of fundamental rights

Judges found that the Taliban had put in place a policy that led to serious violations of the civilian population’s fundamental rights and freedoms, linked to murder, imprisonment, torture, rape and enforced disappearance.

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

Through decrees and edicts, they were severely deprived of their rights to education, privacy and family life and of the freedoms of movement, expression, thought, conscience and religion.

Other Afghans were targeted because certain expressions of sexuality or gender identity were considered at odds with Taliban policy.

The judges also found that people seen as opposing these policies – even passively, or by failing to act – were targeted as political opponents. They included those described as “allies of girls and women”.

Systemic harm

In the warrants, the judges said that the Rome Statute’s definition of gender goes beyond a purely biological idea of sex, in line with current developments in international law.

They said it must recognise the socially constructed roles, behaviours, expectations and hierarchies traditionally linked to people because of their sex – commonly known as gender norms – when assessing gender-based persecution.

The court added that such persecution covers not only direct violence, but also systemic and institutionalised harm, including the imposition of discriminatory social norms.

The ICC Prosecutor applied for the first two warrants on 23 January 2025, and judges issued them on 8 July that year, initially under seal to protect victims and witnesses and safeguard the proceedings, though the court disclosed they existed. 

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