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

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,

A. 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;

B. whereas in 2026, the Taliban adopted the Criminal Procedure Code for Courts (the Code), which criminalises criticism of the authorities and grants judges broad discretionary powers;

C. whereas the Code erodes women’s rights by legalising domestic violence, criminalising women seeking protection from abuse, institutionalising corporal punishment amounting to torture, recognising slavery, prescribing the death penalty without fair trial guarantees, granting husbands discretionary authority to punish wives for disobedience, subjecting women who leave Islam to indefinite imprisonment, and institutionalising discrimination based on gender, religion and social status; whereas it provides no right to legal representation or safeguards against forced confessions, and the removal of women judges, prosecutors and lawyers leaves women without remedies, in violation of Afghanistan’s obligations under the ICCPR, the UNCAT and the Slavery Convention;

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

E. whereas the Taliban regime has institutionalised gender persecution and gender apartheid; whereas the ICC issued arrest warrants against Akhundzada and Haqqani for the crime against humanity of prosecution on gender grounds;

1. Strongly condemns the Code; calls on the Taliban regime to immediately repeal it;

2. Declares that the Taliban regime has institutionalised slavery and gender apartheid; calls on the Council and the Commission to call this out in all diplomatic engagements and to support their recognition as crimes against humanity in the proposed Crimes Against Humanity Treaty;

3. Calls for an immediate end to public floggings, corporal punishment and executions, and for all restrictions on women and girls, LGBTQ+ persons, religious minorities and other vulnerable groups in public life to be lifted;

4. Urges the Commission and the Member States to uphold non-recognition and non-normalisation of the Taliban, in line with the Council’s five benchmarks, and to pressure the Taliban to restore human rights, in particular women’s and girls’ rights; reiterates its full support for the ICC arrest warrants and urges the Member States to enforce them;

5. Urges the EU and its Member States to support the investigative mechanism established by the UN Human Rights Council;

6. Calls on the Council to extend EU global human rights sanctions to Taliban leaders responsible for the persecution of women and girls, including travel bans and asset freezes;

7. Urges the EU and its Member States to increase humanitarian support for Afghan women human rights defenders, judges, lawyers, journalists, activists and women-led organisations, and ensure aid safely reaches Afghan women and girls;

8. Instructs its President to forward this resolution to the Commission, the Council, the VP/HR, the Member States, the UN and the de facto Afghan authorities.