Afghanistan Times
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KABUL – Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers announced Thursday that they are withdrawing the country from the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court (ICC), declaring the previous government’s decision to join the Hague-based court in 2003 as “unlawful.”
The move comes weeks after ICC chief prosecutor Karim Khan sought arrest warrants for Taliban supreme leader Hibatullah Akhundzada and the group’s chief justice, Abdul Hakim Haqqani, accusing them of crimes against humanity for their systematic persecution of Afghan women and girls.
“As an entity that upholds the religious and national values of the Afghan people within the framework of Islamic Sharia, the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan does not recognize any obligation to the Rome Statute or the institution referred to as the ‘International Criminal Court,’” the Taliban said in a statement.
The Taliban dismissed the ICC as politically biased, accusing it of ignoring alleged war crimes committed by U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan. “Given that many of the world’s major powers are not signatories to this ‘court,’ it is unwarranted for a nation such as Afghanistan, which has historically endured foreign occupation and colonial subjugation, to be bound by its jurisdiction,” the group asserted.
The ICC, which prosecutes war crimes and crimes against humanity, has no enforcement power and relies on its 125 member states to execute arrest warrants. Afghanistan formally joined the court in 2003 under its U.S.-backed government, granting the ICC jurisdiction over crimes committed within the country or by Afghan nationals.
Since regaining power in August 2021 following the withdrawal of U.S.-led NATO forces, the Taliban have imposed strict Sharia law, severely restricting women’s rights, barring girls from education beyond the sixth grade, and prohibiting most forms of female employment. No country has recognized the Taliban as Afghanistan’s legitimate government, largely due to their treatment of women.
Akhundzada, who rules from the southern city of Kandahar, rarely appears in public. In a speech last week, he dismissed criticism of his policies, stating that his governance is based on divine command. “Every decree he issues is based on consultation with scholars and derived from the Quran and Hadith [sayings of Islam’s prophet] and represents commands of Allah,” a Taliban spokesperson said.
