(MENAFN- Asia Times) Now well into their second stint in power as the rulers of Afghanistan, the Taliban continue to attack the fundamental human rights of Afghans.
Afghanistan's supreme leader, Haibatullah Akhundzada, has publicly ordered judges to fully enforce islamic law . This reportedly includes public executions, stonings and the amputation of limbs for thievery.
This represents another step toward the complete denial of human rights to Afghans, particularly those historically persecuted by the Taliban, such as women and girls, the LGBTIQ+ community and ethnic minority groups.
The Taliban initially promised a softer version of the harsh rule that characterized their first time in power between 1996 and 2001, before they were deposed by the US-led coalition after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.
But this has been quickly revealed to be false. Since the fall of Kabul, the Taliban have been documented carrying out gross human-rights abuses . This includes the denial of education to women and girls, the blocking of women from working in any sector outside of health care, veiling and the requirement for a male guardian for long-distance travel. All of this constitutes a violation of their fundamental human rights.
The Taliban have also enacted strict media censorship and have carried out arrests, extrajudicial killings and forced disappearances of journalists, former government officials, human-rights advocates and members of ethnic minority groups.
For example, amnesty international has reported that three prominent female human-rights advocates, Zarifa Yaqoobi, Farhat Popalzai and Humaira Yusuf, have recently been detained by the Taliban. This is a clear attempt to spread fear and silence any form of peaceful protest and dissent against the Taliban's oppressive polices.
It has also been alleged that the Taliban killed six Hazara people, an ethnic group long persecuted by the movement, in a deliberate attack in Afghanistan's Ghor province. This attack was reportedly in search of a former government official, revealing the extent of danger faced by minority groups and former government workers under the Taliban.
The United Nations Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in Afghanistan, Richard Bennett, has confirmed the erosion of basic human rights in Afghanistan in a recent report .
The report confirms that the Taliban have undertaken a campaign to erode basic human rights, including“discrimination and violence against women, restrictions on freedom of expression, association and peaceful assembly, economic, social and cultural rights and the administration of justice.”
This has important ramifications for the international community. Attacks on minority groups and the stifling of dissent have intersected with the country's worsening humanitarian crisis. This has led to mass displacement outside of and within Afghanistan.
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees reports that there are 2.3 million Afghan refugees outside the country, primarily in Iran and Pakistan. There are also 3.5 million people internally displaced within the country. Those who remain face acute food insecurity and malnutrition while their rights are rapidly being taken away.
While the international community refuses to recognize the Taliban government, and with the Taliban not respecting their obligations under international law, this is a wicked problem in need of a solution.
But there are steps the international community could take to improve the situation.
First, it is vital that UN agencies and human-rights advocates at ground-level receive adequate resources so they can better monitor and report on abuses. Currently, the team of the Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in Afghanistan relies on sporadic visits to the country and is unable to delve deeper to assess the scale of violations taking place.
The solution to this is for the international community to match its public diplomatic statements on the situation with adequate funding. This would enable UN monitoring efforts to expand and for human-rights organizations at ground-level to receive the funds they need to monitor, document and report on the situation.
Second, the international community, particularly the United States, needs to continue to tie frozen assets from the Afghan Central Bank to human rights. Whether the Taliban like it or not, Afghanistan is signatory to several international conventions and treaties that obligate the movement to respect the rights of its citizens, particularly their civil and political rights.
While the Taliban have evidently been unresponsive to this approach so far, this needs to be a long-term strategy. The Taliban are acutely aware that they need these frozen funds to prop up their government. The longer they are without funds to pay for services and the wages of civil servants, the more pressure they will be under from the population.
Self-interest is always a convincing argument, and this offers the international community important leverage.
Furthermore, Afghanistan's Central Asian neighbors can play an important role. The Taliban are desperate for official recognition, and strengthening economic ties with Central Asia is a key foreign policy concern.
In a positive move, the governments of Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan and Tajikistan have all called for the Taliban to respect the human rights of ethnic minority groups and to form an inclusive government. With several lucrative regional infrastructure deals hinging on how the Taliban deal with minority groups, this has put pressure on the regime to respect the wishes of its neighbors and the rights of its citizens.
Third, the international community should support the International Criminal Court and its chief prosecutor's request to restart its investigation into war crimes in Afghanistan. In 2021, Karim Khan called for the investigation into alleged crimes committed by the Taliban and the Islamic State in Khorasan (ISIS-K). Supporting this investigation would go a long way to holding perpetrators within the Taliban to account for crimes against Afghans.
Afghans would rightly feel an injustice in their current, dire situation after experiencing 20 years of relative freedom, development and the enjoyment of their fundamental human rights. Women and girls in particular have found themselves stripped of all of their rights and increasingly absent in all facets of Afghan society.
For this reason, it's crucial that they are not forgotten.
While the Taliban are evidently in power for the long term, there are steps the international community can take to achieve meaningful change in Afghanistan. Considering Afghans have suffered through decades of conflict, natural disasters and political instability, this is the least the outside world can do.