WHERE ARE HUMAN RIGHTS?
Is Diplomacy with the Taliban Just?
Since the Taliban returned to power in Afghanistan in August 2021, women and girls have faced systematic and escalating restrictions on their fundamental human rights and freedoms.

Girls have been denied access to secondary and higher education. Women have been excluded from employment, public life, decision-making and many essential social spaces. Their freedom of movement, access to opportunities, dignity and equal participation in society have been severely restricted.

These are not isolated restrictions. Together, they constitute a systematic structure of gender-based oppression and institutionalised discrimination that demands urgent international attention and action.

We ask the international community: Where are human rights? Is diplomatic engagement with the Taliban justifiable while millions of Afghan women and girls remain deprived of their fundamental rights?

Diplomacy must not become a substitute for justice, accountability or the protection of human dignity. Afghan women must not be treated as bargaining tools in political negotiations.

OUR DEMANDS
We call upon the United Nations, governments, international institutions and all defenders of human rights to:

1. Recognise and Criminalise Gender Apartheid
Support the explicit recognition and codification of gender apartheid as a crime against humanity under international law, building upon existing international legal frameworks concerning gender-based persecution and other crimes against humanity.

2. Ensure Justice and Accountability
Support independent, impartial and effective investigations into alleged serious human rights violations and international crimes in Afghanistan. Pursue accountability through competent national and international judicial mechanisms, including the International Criminal Court where jurisdictional and admissibility requirements are met.

3. Reject Unconditional Political Normalisation
Ensure that diplomatic engagement with the Taliban is guided by clear, measurable and verifiable human rights conditions. No political recognition or normalisation should come at the expense of Afghan women's fundamental rights.

4. Restore the Fundamental Rights of Women and Girls
Demand the immediate restoration of women's and girls' rights to education, employment, freedom of movement, public participation, political representation and equal access to social and public life.

5. Protect Afghan Women Human Rights Defenders
Establish and strengthen effective protection mechanisms for women activists, journalists, educators, human rights defenders and all those who peacefully speak out for equality and justice.

6. Ensure Meaningful Participation of Afghan Women
Guarantee the meaningful, direct and representative participation of Afghan women in all international negotiations, diplomatic processes and policy decisions concerning the future of Afghanistan.

OUR MESSAGE TO THE WORLD
The rights, freedom and dignity of Afghan women and girls are not negotiable.

The international community must not allow diplomatic interests to overshadow fundamental human rights. Silence in the face of systematic oppression is not neutrality, and diplomacy without accountability cannot deliver lasting justice.

We call on people around the world, human rights organisations, governments and international institutions to stand with the women and girls of Afghanistan.

Sign this petition. Raise your voice. Demand justice. Help make gender apartheid recognised and explicitly codified as a crime against humanity under international law.

Every signature is a message that Afghan women and girls have not been forgotten.

 
INITIATED BY
Global Women’s Justice Network (GWJN)

Aziz Gull Afghan Bik , women's rights activist 

President of the Global Women’s Justice Network

Email: info@gwjn.org