Global Roundup: ICC Seeks Arrest for Taliban Leaders, Marriage Equality in Thailand, Queer Feminist Nicaraguan Singer, Women's Football Record Transfer Fee, Celtic Tribe's Matrilocal History

Afghan women and girls protest in front of the Ministry of Education in Kabul on 26 March, 2022, demanding high schools be reopened for girls. Photo: AFP / Ahmad Sahel Arman

The International Criminal Court prosecutor said on Thursday he had applied for arrest warrants for two Taliban leaders in Afghanistan including supreme spiritual leader Haibatullah Akhundzada, accusing them of the persecution of women and girls.

A statement issued by the office of chief Prosecutor Karim Khan said investigators found reasonable grounds to believe that Akhundzada and Abdul Hakim Haqqani, who has served as chief justice since 2021, "bear criminal responsibility for the crime against humanity of persecution on gender grounds."

They are "criminally responsible for persecuting Afghan girls and women...and persons whom the Taliban perceived as allies of girls and women," the statement said.

Persecution has taken place across Afghanistan from at least Aug. 15, 2021 - the day that Taliban forces captured the capital Kabul - to the present day, the prosecutor said.

Khan said his office was demonstrating its commitment to pursuing accountability for gender-based crimes and that the Taliban's interpretation of Islamic sharia law could not be a justification for human rights abuses or crimes.

Afghan women and girls as well as the LGBTQI+ community are facing an unprecedented, unconscionable and ongoing persecution by the Taliban. Our action signals that the status quo for women and girls in Afghanistan is not acceptable. -ICC Chief Prosecutor Karim Khan

Since they took back control of the country in 2021, the Taliban have barred women from jobs, most public spaces and education beyond sixth grade. Last year, Akhundzada banned buildings from having windows looking into places where a woman might sit or stand.

There was no immediate comment by Taliban leaders on the prosecutor's statement, which was welcomed by groups defending women's rights.

It will now be up to a three-judge panel at the ICC to rule on the prosecution request, which has no set deadline. Such procedures take an average of three months.

It was the first time ICC prosecutors have publicly sought warrants in their investigation into potential war crimes in Afghanistan, which dates back to 2007 and once included alleged crimes by the U.S. military there.

Human rights groups applauded the ICC move against the Taliban leadership.

Their systematic violations of women and girls’ rights, including education bans, and the suppression of those speaking up for women’s rights, have accelerated with complete impunity. With no justice in sight in Afghanistan, the warrant requests offer an essential pathway to a measure of accountability,” Liz Evenson, international justice director at Human Rights Watch