ICC Unseals Arrest Warrants for Four Taliban Leaders Over Gender Persecution
ICC Unseals Arrest Warrants for Four Taliban Leaders Over Gender Persecution
The ICC has unsealed arrest warrants for four senior Taliban leaders, accusing them of the crime against humanity of gender-based persecution over the systematic oppression of women and girls in Afghanistan.
On Monday, judges of the court’s Pre-Trial Chamber II unsealed warrants for Taliban Supreme Leader Haibatullah Akhundzada and Chief Justice Abdul Hakim Haqqani, whose existence was announced in July 2025, along with two further suspects, Habibullah Agha and Neda Mohammad Nadim, the Taliban’s education ministers.
The court said there were reasonable grounds to believe all four were criminally responsible for ordering, inducing or soliciting persecution, a crime against humanity under Article 7(1)(h) of the Rome Statute, the court’s founding treaty.
ICC arrest warrants rest on an expanded reading of gender
In a notable legal development, the judges held that the Rome Statute’s definition of gender goes beyond a purely biological idea of sex. It must recognise 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 said the persecution was carried out on gender grounds against girls, women and other people who did not conform to the 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 August 15, 2021, when the Taliban seized power, until at least January 20, 2025.
Systematic deprivation of fundamental rights
Judges found that the Taliban had put in place a governmental policy that led to severe 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 regarded as inconsistent with Taliban policy.
The judges added that the persecution covered not only direct violence but also systemic and institutionalised harm, and that people seen as opposing these policies were targeted as political opponents.
A case built over several years
The ICC prosecutor applied for the first two warrants on January 23, 2025, and judges issued them on July 8 that year, initially under seal to protect victims and witnesses. Afghanistan remains the only country in the world to ban girls from secondary education and women from attending university, according to UN Women.
What happens next
The Taliban have rejected the court’s authority. Spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid dismissed the warrants as unfounded, saying they would not undermine the group’s commitment to its interpretation of Islamic law. The ICC has no police force of its own and relies on member states to enforce arrests, which limits the practical effect of the warrants while the suspects remain inside Afghanistan.
Still, the unsealing puts detailed judicial findings on the public record for the first time and raises the personal stakes for Taliban officials who travel abroad.
FAQ
Who do the ICC arrest warrants name?
The four warrants name Taliban Supreme Leader Haibatullah Akhundzada, Chief Justice Abdul Hakim Haqqani, and education ministers Habibullah Agha and Neda Mohammad Nadim.
What are the Taliban leaders accused of?
The court found reasonable grounds to believe they ordered or induced the crime against humanity of persecution on gender grounds, through policies that severely deprived women and girls of education, movement, expression and other fundamental rights.
Will the warrants lead to arrests?
The ICC depends on member states to carry out arrests and has no police force of its own, so enforcement is unlikely while the suspects remain in Afghanistan. The warrants do, however, restrict their international travel and put judicial findings on record.
