KABUL, AFGHANISTAN – Australia has imposed financial sanctions and travel bans on four senior Taliban officials, citing an increasingly dire human rights situation in Afghanistan, particularly for women, girls, and minority groups.
The measures, announced on Saturday, December 6, by Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, target three Taliban ministers and the group’s chief justice.
The sanctioned officials are Mohammad Khalid Hanafi, Minister for the Propagation of Virtue and Prevention of Vice; Neda Mohammad Nadeem, Minister of Higher Education; Abdul-Hakim Sharei, Minister of Justice; and Abdul Hakim Haqqani, Chief Justice.
The sanctions include travel bans, asset freezes, arms embargoes, and restrictions on receiving services related to weapons or military equipment.
In a post on X, Australia’s Foreign Minister Penny Wong said the targeted individuals were “involved in the oppression of women and girls and in undermining good governance or the rule of law” in Afghanistan. She added that the government had established a “world-first autonomous sanctions framework for Afghanistan” to hold the Taliban accountable.
“Our thoughts continue to be with those suffering under the Taliban’s oppression, as well as the Afghan community in Australia,” she said, adding that the Australian government has provided $260 million in humanitarian assistance to Afghans since the Taliban’s return to power, with a strong focus on women and girls.
The Taliban authorities have not yet commented on Australia’s measures.
Australia has previously sanctioned 140 Taliban-linked individuals and entities under the United Nations Security Council sanctions framework. The country withdrew its troops from Afghanistan in August 2021 after nearly two decades in a NATO-led mission that trained Afghan security forces and fought the Taliban.
Human rights conditions in Taliban-controlled Afghanistan have deteriorated in recent years, with women and girls barred from education, employment, and public life, and ethnic and religious minorities facing discrimination and marginalization. UN experts have described the Taliban’s policies toward women and girls as “gender persecution amounting to crimes against humanity.”
The International Criminal Court (ICC) last year issued arrest warrants for Taliban supreme leader Hibatullah Akhundzada and Chief Justice Abdul Hakim Haqqani on charges of gender-based crimes against humanity, underscoring mounting international concern over rights abuses in Afghanistan.
