People\u2019s Tribunal for Afghanistan\u2019s Women<\/a>, a grassroots mechanism, will hear expert evidence and testimony from Afghan survivors as it considers the Taliban\u2019s treatment of women and assesses it against international law.<\/p>\nPeople\u2019s tribunals\u2014also known as citizens\u2019 tribunals or moral tribunals\u2014are independent, symbolic courts established by civil society to investigate and document serious human rights violations when formal judicial mechanisms are absent, inaccessible, or complicit.<\/p>\n
This one was set up by the Permanent Peoples Tribunal, a Rome-based body, at the behest of a group of four Afghan civil society organisations.<\/p>\n
\u201cGiven the devastating human rights situation for women and girls in Afghanistan and ever-increasing restrictions, Afghan civil society identified a pressing need for redress,\u201d said a statement issued before the tribunal opened.<\/p>\n
\u201cAlongside formal judicial processes, engaging a complementary, grassroots mechanism was crucial to amplify the voices of Afghan women and hold the Taliban accountable.\u201d<\/p>\n
Since returning to power in August 2021, the Taliban have systematically stripped women and girls of their right to education and work, imposed draconian dress rules and even barred them from leaving their homes unchaperoned.<\/p>\n
The opening speech was given by Shaharzad Akbar, an exiled Afghan human rights defender and former chair of the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission, whose group Rawadari was among those that requested the tribunal.<\/p>\n
Akbar said the tribunal aimed to resist the normalisation of crimes and to provide a platform for women victims to share their stories of systematic human rights violations.<\/p>\n
According to Akbar, women and girls in Afghanistan have experienced gender discrimination and violence for decades, and this tribunal provides an opportunity for their voices to be heard.<\/p>\n
She further added that the tribunal is being held after years of effort, and that \u201cgender-based oppression and injustice against women and girls in Afghanistan is its central focus.\u201d<\/p>\n
The tribunal is being held based on victims\u2019 testimonies, evidence, and collected documentation, she said, calling on the international community to choose between normalising the Taliban\u2019s crimes or standing with the women of Afghanistan.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A hearing into the Taliban\u2019s treatment of women in Afghanistan opened on Wednesday in the Spanish capital, seeking…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":484172,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5312],"tags":[2000,299,104],"class_list":{"0":"post-484171","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-spain","8":"tag-eu","9":"tag-europe","10":"tag-spain"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115341153063508245","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/484171","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=484171"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/484171\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/484172"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=484171"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=484171"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=484171"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}