Statement of the Purple Saturdays Movement on the Occasion of 10 December, Human Rights Day

Statement of the Purple Saturdays Movement on the Occasion of 10 December, Human Rights Day

As Human Rights Day, 10 December, arrives in Afghanistan, this day, instead of serving as an occasion of commemoration and celebration for the citizens of Afghanistan, especially women, vulnerable ethnic communities, and religious minorities, has tragically become a symbol of despair and a profound sense of structural and fundamental deprivation of basic rights.

Over the past four years, the Taliban have plunged Afghanistan into an acute and fragile human-rights crisis through the perpetration of gender apartheid, linguistic apartheid against the Persian/Dari language, forced displacements, war crimes, extrajudicial killings and summary executions, suppression of freedom of expression, the arrest and sexual abuse of numerous human-rights defenders, and other crimes against humanity.

Through these actions, the Taliban have not only endangered the lives of millions of citizens, particularly the women of Afghanistan, but have also violated and disregarded the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Their actions must therefore be subjected to legal accountability, rigorous international sanctions, and international justice mechanisms.

Despite this, the United Nations and the broader international community, particularly powerful states, by indirectly denying or downplaying the Taliban’s crimes against humanity and justifying them under the notion of “engagement”, have in practice placed human rights and their foundational values in Afghanistan at risk of complete collapse.

We, a collective of human-rights activists and women protesters inside Afghanistan, emphasize that the passive and delayed approach of the international community and the United Nations in responding to the Taliban’s crimes against humanity is more dangerous than the violations themselves. The recognition of the Taliban’s crimes against humanity is the first meaningful and effective step toward initiating justice, especially for the women of Afghanistan.

Accordingly, we call upon the international community, international institutions, the United Nations, and the United Nations Security Council, which convenes today to discuss the situation in Afghanistan, to take the following measures in order to genuinely support efforts to end the human-rights and political crisis in Afghanistan:

Immediate cessation of all forms of engagement with the Taliban.

Formal recognition of gender apartheid, crimes against humanity, and linguistic apartheid against the Persian/Dari language in Afghanistan.

Imposition of stronger and more restrictive sanctions against the Taliban.

Prosecution of Taliban leaders and the issuance of arrest warrants for other members of the group.

Robust and principled support for the resistance and struggles of the women of Afghanistan.

Support for the establishment of a new political framework in Afghanistan; we regard a legitimate, democratic, and decentralized system as the most viable alternative to the Taliban’s self-declared rule.

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