On the situation of women and girls in Afghanistan following the Taliban’s adoption of the Criminal Procedure Code for Courts

B100255/2026

European Parliament resolution on the situation of women and girls in Afghanistan following the Taliban’s adoption of the Criminal Procedure Code for Courts

(2026/2737(RSP))

The European Parliament,

– having regard to its previous resolutions on Afghanistan,

– having regard to Rules 150(5) and 136(4) of its Rules of Procedure,

whereas since the Taliban's illegal seizure of power in 2021, Afghan women and girls have been subjected to systematic persecution through more than 150 edicts depriving them of education beyond sixth grade, employment, justice, freedom of movement, healthcare and public life;

whereas on 4 January 2026 the Taliban adopted the so-called Criminal Procedure Code for Courts imposed without democratic process;

whereas the Code legalises domestic violence, criminalises women seeking protection with relatives from abuse, institutionalises corporal punishment amounting to torture under international law, recognises slavery, prescribes the death penalty for a broad range of offences without fair trial guarantees, and entrenches discrimination based on gender, religion and social status, in violation of Afghanistan's obligations under the ICCPR, the CAT and the Slavery Convention to which it is a State Party;

whereas the Code formally grants husbands discretionary authority to punish wives for disobedience; whereas women who leave Islam face indefinite imprisonment and repeated corporal punishment; whereas the Code contains no right to legal representation, no right to silence and no safeguards against forced confession;

whereas the Taliban have sharply increased public floggings and corporal punishments, including against at least 170 women in 2025;

whereas the Taliban regime amounts to institutionalised gender persecution and gender apartheid; whereas only the Russian Federation has recognised the Taliban; whereas on 8 July 2025 the ICC issued arrest warrants against Akhundzada and Haqqani for the crime against humanity of gender persecution;

Strongly condemns the Taliban's so-called Criminal Procedure Code for Courts; calls on the Taliban regime to immediately revoke it and stop its implementation;

Declares that the cumulative effect of Taliban edicts constitutes slavery and gender apartheid; Calls for an immediate end to public floggings, corporal punishment and executions;

Calls on the Council and the Commission to adopt this characterisation in all diplomatic engagement and to support its codification as a crime against humanity in the proposed Crimes Against Humanity Treaty;

Calls on the EU and Member States to maintain non-recognition and non-normalisation of the Taliban, making any engagement strictly conditional on verifiable progress on women's and girls' rights; reiterates full support for the ICC arrest warrants and urges Member States to cooperate in their enforcement;

Calls on the Council to extend the EU Magnitsky Act to Taliban leaders responsible for the persecution of women and girls, including travel bans and asset freezes;

Calls on the Commission and the VP/HR to expedite the CEDAW proceedings initiated in September 2024 and to report transparently to Parliament on their progress;

Urges the EU and Member States to increase support for Afghan women human rights defenders, judges, lawyers, journalists, civil society activists and women-led organisations;

Instructs its President to forward this resolution to the EU institutions, the Member States, the UN and the de facto Afghan authorities.