Afghanistan

The Taliban tacitly relaxed some restrictions on female aid workers working in health and nutrition. The Taliban had decreed in December that women would be banned from aid work for alleged failures to comply with its interpretation of Islamic clothing codes.

Gender Equality Basic Welfare NGO/CSO

The Taliban publicly executed a man in the Afghan city of Farah on 7 December, the first such execution since it returned to power in August 2021. United Nations officials condemned the execution as well as the Taliban’s reinstatement of public floggings, more than 100 of which have reportedly been carried out since 18 November 2022.

Personal Integrity and Security Torture

The Taliban banned women from visiting all Kabul parks on 10 November on the grounds that Islamic laws were not being properly respected. The ruling has been part of increasingly restrictive rules governing women and girls’ conduct since the Taliban returned to power in August 2021. 

Gender Equality Taliban

Prosecutors at the International Criminal Court received permission on 31 October from ICC judges to relaunch their investigation into grave crimes committed in Afghanistan since 2003. The investigation had been paused at the request of the previous Afghan government, which wanted to handle investigations domestically, and prosecutors formally asked for permission to resume investigations in September 2021. However, the renewed investigation's plans to ‘deprioritize’ looking into alleged crimes committed by the United States and security personnel and the Afghan security forces has come under criticism from international organizations and Afghan victims of rights abuses.

ICC