ISLAMABAD (AP) — A U.N. report on Monday strongly criticized the Taliban for finishing up public executions, lashings and stonings since seizing energy in Afghanistan, and known as on the nation’s rulers to halt such practices.
Prior to now six months alone, 274 males, 58 ladies and two boys have been publicly flogged in Afghanistan, based on a report by the United Nations Help Mission in Afghanistan, or UNAMA.
“Corporal punishment is a violation of the Conference in opposition to Torture and should stop,” stated Fiona Frazer, the company’s human rights chief. She additionally known as for an instantaneous moratorium on executions.
The Taliban international ministry stated in response that Afghanistan’s legal guidelines are decided in accordance with Islamic guidelines and tips, and that an awesome majority of Afghans comply with these guidelines.
“Within the occasion of a battle between worldwide human rights regulation and Islamic regulation, the federal government is obliged to comply with the Islamic regulation,” the ministry stated in a press release.
The Taliban started finishing up such punishments shortly after coming to energy virtually two years in the past, regardless of preliminary guarantees of a extra average rule than throughout their earlier stint in energy within the Nineties.
On the similar time, they’ve steadily tightened restrictions on ladies, barring them from public areas, reminiscent of parks and gymnasiums, according to their interpretation of Islamic regulation. The restrictions have triggered a global uproar, growing the nation’s isolation at a time when its economic system has collapsed — and worsening a humanitarian disaster.
Monday’s report on corporal punishment paperwork Taliban practices each earlier than and after their return to energy in August 2021, after they seized the capital of Kabul as U.S. and NATO forces withdrew after 20 years of battle.
The primary public flogging following the Taliban takeover was reported in October 2021 within the northern Kapisa province, the report stated. In that case, a lady and man convicted of adultery have been publicly lashed 100 instances every within the presence of non secular students and native Taliban authorities, it stated.
In December 2022, Taliban authorities executed an Afghan convicted of homicide, the primary public execution since they took energy the report stated.
The execution, carried out with an assault rifle by the sufferer’s father, came about within the western Farah province earlier than a whole bunch of spectators and prime Taliban officers.
Zabihullah Mujahid, the highest authorities spokesman, stated the choice to hold out the punishment was “made very rigorously,” following approval by three of the nation’s highest courts and the Taliban supreme chief, Mullah Hibatullah Akhundzada.
There was a major improve within the quantity and regularity of judicial corporal punishment since November when Mujahid repeated feedback by the supreme chief about judges and their use of Islamic regulation in a tweet, the report stated.
Since that tweet, UNAMA documented no less than 43 cases of public lashings involving 274 males, 58 ladies and two boys. A majority of punishments have been associated to convictions of adultery and “working away from dwelling,” the report stated. Different purported offenses included theft, homosexuality, consuming alcohol, fraud and drug trafficking.
In a video message, Abdul Malik Haqqani, the Taliban’s appointed deputy chief justice, stated final week that the Taliban’s Supreme Court docket has issued 175 so-called retribution verdicts since taking energy, together with 79 floggings and 37 stonings.
Such verdicts set up the fitting of a purported sufferer, or relative of a sufferer of a criminal offense to punish or forgive the perpetrator. Haqqani stated the Taliban management is dedicated to finishing up such sentences.
After their preliminary overthrow within the U.S. invasion of 2001, the Taliban continued to hold out corporal punishment and executions in areas beneath their management whereas waging an insurgency in opposition to the U.S.-backed former Afghan authorities, the report stated.
UNAMA documented no less than 182 cases when the Taliban carried out their very own sentences throughout the peak of their insurgency between 2010 and August 2021, leading to 213 deaths and 64 accidents.
Many Muslim-majority nations draw on Islamic regulation, however the Taliban interpretation is an outlier.
U.N. Secretary-Common Antonio Guterres has known as a Taliban ban on ladies working an unacceptable violation of Afghan human rights.
On April 5, Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers knowledgeable the United Nations that Afghan ladies employed with the U.N. mission might now not report for work. Support businesses have warned that the ban on ladies working will influence their means to ship pressing humanitarian assist in Afghanistan.
The Taliban beforehand banned women from going to high school past the sixth grade and girls from most public life and work. In December, they banned Afghan ladies from working at native and non-governmental teams — a measure that on the time didn’t lengthen to U.N. places of work.
Beneath the primary Taliban regime from 1996 to 2001, public corporal punishment and executions have been carried out by officers in opposition to people convicted of crimes, usually in giant venues reminiscent of sports activities stadiums and at city intersections.