ASIA/AFGHANISTAN – Discrimination against women and violations of rights: an NGO appeals to the Permanent People’s Tribunal

Madrid – On October 8, the Permanent People’s Tribunal will open its hearing to examine the complaint filed by a coalition of Afghan civil society organizations, which denounces the rights violations and discrimination that the Taliban government continues to inflict against Afghan women. With this appeal, civil society and women’s rights groups aim to create a channel to determine the Taliban’s responsibility for the gender apartheid in Afghanistan. The NGOs warn about the growing oppression suffered by Afghan women and call on the international community to listen to their voices.
The coalition is made up of four organizations: Rawadari, Afghanistan Human Rights and Democracy Organization, Organization for Policy Research and Development Studies, and Human Rights Defenders Plus. Since December 2024, these organizations have held consultations with victims and survivors, Islamic scholars, international human rights lawyers, civil society organizations, and criminal justice experts, both inside and outside the country, to document violations of Afghan women’s rights.
According to the complaint filed with the PPT, since the Taliban’s return to power in August 2021, women and girls have suffered a severe setback in their fundamental rights. They have been denied access to secondary and university education, excluded from most jobs, and marginalized from public life. Today, they face one of the most extreme forms of gender discrimination in the world. Silenced in their own country, they also risk being forgotten by the international community. The public hearing will be held in Madrid, Spain, from October 8 to 10, 2025. It will provide a platform for Afghan women to share their testimonies, along with statements from civil society experts, legal scholars, and human rights specialists. The Tribunal’s judges will issue an opening statement on October 10, while the final judgment will be announced during the first half of December 2025. While the Afghan civil society coalition supports all other international mechanisms to hold the Taliban accountable for their persecution in Afghanistan, the Permanent People’s Tribunal session calls for global action to address issues affecting justice in Afghanistan, focusing on people’s lives and basic human rights. The PPT is an international tribunal of opinion that examines cases of serious human rights violations, war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide. It is composed of a network of renowned experts and is based in Rome. Since its creation, it has held more than 50 sessions around the world, including two on Afghanistan—in relation to the 1979 Soviet invasion—held in Stockholm and Paris .
The PPT was founded in Bologna in 1979, inspired by the Universal Declaration of the Rights of Peoples , following the initiative of Italian jurist and politician Lelio Basso. Its creation transformed the experiences of the Russell Tribunal on Vietnam and the Russell Tribunal on dictatorships in Latin America into a permanent institution dedicated to listening to peoples facing a lack of justice and impunity. Its judgments are not binding, but have a high symbolic, cultural, and political value.

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