Spanish government urged to denounce Afghanistan before the ICC for its treatment of women and girls

Eduardo González A group of Spanish women have urged the Spanish government to initiate proceedings before the International Criminal Court (ICC) to declare the treatment of women and girls in Afghanistan a crime against humanity. “We, women from all over the world, from different fields and professions, we who have a voice, are shocked and want to raise our voices in support of the women and girls of Afghanistan,”, says the manifesto published by the citizens’ initiative ‘Más Democracia’ to collect signatures of support. According to the signatories, Afghan women and girls are “under a repressive regime that violates their most basic human rights, where they suffer oppression, violence, repression, harassment and constant abuses.” “Afghan women and girls do not need to be protected or saved, what they need are rights. They need their rights to be guaranteed and not allowed to be constantly trampled upon,” the text continues. The text calls on “public authorities of all countries and international organizations to react, to take action and to stop allowing this violation of the fundamental rights of women and girls just because they are women.” “These practices against Afghan women undoubtedly constitute a crime against humanity under Article 7 of the Rome Statute and, as requested by the UN Rapporteur, should be considered gender apartheid,” the manifesto denounces. “We urge the International Criminal Court to declare the treatment of Afghan women and girls a crime against humanity. Those responsible for the more than 100 rules and edicts that oppress Afghan women and girls must be brought to justice and held accountable for their actions,” it continues. “We, Spanish women with voice and rights, also urge the government of Spain to initiate proceedings before the International Criminal Court, to lead the international community in condemning institutionalized violence against Afghan women and to implement concrete measures to eradicate such violence and guarantee the rights of all women and girls,” the manifesto concludes. “Women for Más Democracia launched a letter to ask Moncloa to initiate proceedings before the International Criminal Court against the violation of Afghan women's rights. In a few hours, more than a thousand signatures. And growing”, declared the president of Más Democracia, the political scientist Cristina Monge, on the social network X. Más Democracia is a political citizens' organisation that aims to influence institutions, parties, media and public opinion to improve the quality of democracy and increase citizen political participation. The initiative works in a network with other national and international organisations, based on ideological plurality and intergenerational diversity, On 23 August, Afghanistan's de facto government passed the Law for the Propagation of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, which, among other measures, makes the veil compulsory for women and prohibits women from making their voices heard at public events - including the impossibility of singing, reciting or speaking into a microphone - from looking at men who are not their relatives, using cosmetics or perfumes, imitating ‘the dress styles of non-Muslim women’ or travelling in cars with men who are not their relatives. On the same day, Foreign Minister José Manuel Albares expressed Spain's total rejection of ‘the so-called law for the propagation of the Taliban's virtue in Afghanistan, which seeks to silence Afghan women’ and condemned (via X) ‘any violation of the human rights and fundamental freedoms of women and girls’.

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