Canada, Australia, Germany and the Netherlands will submit a lawsuit to the International Court of Justice of the United Nations against the Taliban because of discrimination against women.
The Guardian writes about it.
This is the first time that the International Court of Justice in The Hague will consider an interstate dispute related to gender discrimination.
The case will be brought under the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, which entered into force in 1981 — Afghanistan ratified it in 2003, even before the Taliban came to power.
Afghanistan will then have six months to respond before the UN International Court of Justice hears the case and is likely to offer interim measures. The countries that initiated the lawsuit are open to negotiations with the Taliban to end discrimination against women. However, if the negotiations do not yield results, the court proceedings will continue.
Even if the Taliban refuse to recognize the courtʼs authority, its decision is likely to deter other states seeking to normalize diplomatic relations with the Taliban. At the same time, there is concern, because the UN has already held negotiations with the Taliban, during which the issue of womenʼs rights was excluded from the agenda so that they would come to the meeting at all.
- After seizing power in August 2021, the Taliban began to gradually suppress womenʼs rights. Thus, the Taliban banned women from studying at universities, ordered private universities not to admit them to entrance exams, forbade women to work in non-governmental organizations, play sports, visit amusement parks, and drive in cars without a hijab. The country also closed beauty salons for women, banned women from visiting the Band-e-Amir National Park, and women who were subjected to violence are sent to prisons. Recently, the Taliban banned women from speaking in public.
- In March of this year, the supreme leader of the Taliban Mawlawi Hibatullah Akhundzada promised to start publicly stoning women to death as a sign of struggle against Western democracy.