KABUL, AFGHANISTAN – The Permanent People’s Tribunal (PPT) has opened a hearing in Madrid to examine a complaint filed by a coalition of Afghan civil society organizations accusing the Taliban of crimes against humanity and the systematic persecution of women and girls in Afghanistan.
The three-day public hearing, which runs from October 8 to 10, offers Afghan women an opportunity to share testimonies alongside statements from civil society experts, legal scholars, and human rights specialists.
The tribunal is organized by four Afghan civil society groups — Rawadari, the Afghanistan Human Rights and Democracy Organization, the Organization for Policy Research and Development Studies, and Human Rights Defenders Plus. The organizers say the proceedings aim to challenge impunity for Taliban abuses, particularly their systematic oppression of women and girls.
“This tribunal is a platform for the voices of Afghan women who have been silenced,” said Shaharzad Akbar, an organizer and head of Rawadari, in her opening remarks. “It sends a clear message that impunity will not erase their suffering or their demands for justice.”
The PPT, based in Rome, is an international tribunal of opinion composed of experts that examines cases of serious human rights violations, war crimes, and crimes against humanity. Established in 1979, it has held more than 50 sessions worldwide, including two earlier hearings on Afghanistan related to the 1979 Soviet invasion, held in Stockholm in 1981 and Paris in 1982.
Although its rulings are not legally binding, the tribunal’s findings are expected to contribute to future advocacy and legal actions, including at the International Criminal Court (ICC) and the UN Human Rights Council, which on Monday voted to create an independent accountability mechanism for Afghanistan.
Since the Taliban returned to power in August 2021, women and girls in Afghanistan have faced a dramatic rollback of their basic rights. They have been barred from secondary and higher education, removed from most forms of employment, and pushed out of public life. Today, they face one of the world’s harshest systems of gender discrimination — silenced within their own country and at risk of being forgotten by the international community.
In March, the ICC issued arrest warrants for Taliban supreme leader Hibatullah Akhundzada and Chief Justice Abdul Hakim Haqqani for alleged gender-based crimes against humanity — a move seen by rights groups as a step toward accountability.
Organizers of the Madrid tribunal say the proceedings are meant to ensure those crimes are neither forgotten nor normalized, and to remind the world that Afghan women’s struggle for justice is far from over.
