UN rights council opens Afghanistan abuses probe

GENEVA: The UN Human Rights Council on Monday created a mechanism to investigate serious rights violations in Afghanistan, adopting without a vote a resolution introduced by the European Union and presented by Denmark’s ambassador Ib Petersen. The initiative follows mounting alarm over the Taliban’s treatment of women and girls and an enduring humanitarian emergency.

The new body will collect, consolidate, preserve and analyze evidence of international crimes and grave abuses, with a mandate to prepare files that could support future independent criminal proceedings. An EU spokesperson said the mechanism will help safeguard testimonies and the stories of victims.

The resolution condemns the institutionalized discrimination imposed by the Taliban, including restrictions that have barred women and girls from secondary and higher education, curtailed their movement, and effectively erased them from public life. While council members joined the consensus, China formally distanced itself, arguing the text failed to acknowledge what it called positive developments.

Human rights advocates welcomed the move. Human Rights Watch said the decision puts the Taliban and other perpetrators on notice that evidence is being gathered for potential accountability, even as millions of Afghans face hunger, displacement and repression.