ICC unseals arrest warrants for four Taliban officials over gender persecution

Unsealed arrest warrants

The International Criminal Court unsealed arrest warrants on 5 October 2026 for four senior Taliban officials, accusing them of the crime against humanity of gender persecution in Afghanistan. The named figures include Taliban supreme leader Hibatullah Akhundzada, Supreme Court chief justice Abdul Hakim Haqqani, Education Minister Habibullah Agha, and Minister of Higher Education Neda Mohammad Nadeem. Pre-trial judges in The Hague originally approved sealed warrants for Akhundzada and Haqqani in July 2025, while issuing warrants for Agha and Nadeem on 9 September 2025. The court decided to publish the warrants after establishing that public disclosure would not compromise ongoing investigations and could assist in preventing further offenses by the named suspects. Both education ministers operate as close loyalists to Akhundzada, executing administrative policies that bar girls over age 12 from secondary education.

Gender persecution charges

The ICC Pre-Trial Chamber concluded that reasonable grounds exist to establish criminal responsibility against the four officials for ordering, soliciting, and inciting gender-based persecution. The alleged crimes took place on Afghan territory between 15 August 2021, when the Taliban captured Kabul, and at least 20 January 2025. The warrants specifically address systemic discrimination against girls, women, and individuals whose gender expression or identity does not conform to Taliban policy, alongside persons targeted politically as allies of women. Former ICC chief prosecutor Karim Khan had formally requested the initial warrants in January 2025 after examining the regime's legal and administrative decrees.

Afghan women and girls as well as the LGBTQI+ community are facing an unprecedented, unconscionable and ongoing persecution by the Taliban.

Systemic decrees against women

Judges determined that the four officials implemented an overarching state policy that resulted in severe violations of civilian rights and freedoms across Afghanistan. The court connected the gender edicts to underlying acts of murder, imprisonment, torture, rape, and enforced disappearances. Under the leadership of Akhundzada, authorities stripped women of privacy, family life, and freedoms of movement, expression, thought, conscience, and religion, even prohibiting buildings from having windows overlooking areas where women might sit. According to UN Women, Afghanistan remains the only nation globally that bans girls from receiving secondary and higher education, maintaining indefinite prohibitions on schooling past the sixth grade.

Operational limits and diplomatic pressure

Enforcing the warrants presents substantial hurdles because the ICC possesses no independent police force and relies entirely on international cooperation to execute apprehensions. Before taking power in August 2021, Taliban representatives pledged to protect access to employment and education under their interpretation of Islamic law, but quickly instituted sweeping bans on public life. UN statistics indicate that half of Afghan women now leave their residences only once or twice a month due to movement rules requiring a male relative as a chaperone. While Taliban spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid repeatedly stated that officials are working on Sharia-compliant school conditions, the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva urged the Taliban on 5 October 2026 to immediately repeal all restrictive measures.