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ISLAMABAD — A U.N. report on Monday strongly criticized the Taliban for finishing up public executions, lashings and stonings since seizing energy in Afghanistan, and referred to as on the nation’s rulers to halt such practices.
Prior to now six months alone, 274 males, 58 girls and two boys had been publicly flogged in Afghanistan, in accordance with a report by the United Nations Help Mission in Afghanistan, or UNAMA.
“Corporal punishment is a violation of the Conference in opposition to Torture and should stop,” stated Fiona Frazer, the company’s human rights chief. She additionally referred to as for an instantaneous moratorium on executions.
The Taliban overseas ministry stated in response that Afghanistan’s legal guidelines are decided in accordance with Islamic guidelines and pointers, and that an amazing majority of Afghans observe these guidelines.
“Within the occasion of a battle between worldwide human rights legislation and Islamic legislation, the federal government is obliged to observe the Islamic legislation,” the ministry stated in a press release.
The Taliban started finishing up such punishments shortly after coming to energy nearly two years in the past, regardless of preliminary guarantees of a extra reasonable rule than throughout their earlier stint in energy within the Nineties.
On the identical time, they’ve regularly tightened restrictions on girls, barring them from public areas, corresponding to parks and gymnasiums, consistent with their interpretation of Islamic legislation. The restrictions have triggered a global uproar, growing the nation’s isolation at a time when its financial system has collapsed — and worsening a humanitarian disaster.
Monday’s report on corporal punishment paperwork Taliban practices each earlier than and after their return to energy in August 2021, after they seized the capital of Kabul as U.S. and NATO forces withdrew after 20 years of battle.
The primary public flogging following the Taliban takeover was reported in October 2021 within the northern Kapisa province, the report stated. In that case, a lady and man convicted of adultery had been publicly lashed 100 instances every within the presence of non secular students and native Taliban authorities, it stated.
In December 2022, Taliban authorities executed an Afghan convicted of homicide, the primary public execution since they took energy the report stated.
The execution, carried out with an assault rifle by the sufferer’s father, occurred within the western Farah province earlier than lots of of spectators and prime Taliban officers.
Zabihullah Mujahid, the highest authorities spokesman, stated the choice to hold out the punishment was “made very fastidiously,” following approval by three of the nation’s highest courts and the Taliban supreme chief, Mullah Hibatullah Akhundzada.
There was a big enhance within the quantity and regularity of judicial corporal punishment since November when Mujahid repeated feedback by the supreme chief about judges and their use of Islamic legislation in a tweet, the report stated.
Since that tweet, UNAMA documented no less than 43 situations of public lashings involving 274 males, 58 girls and two boys. A majority of punishments had been associated to convictions of adultery and “working away from house,” the report stated. Different purported offenses included theft, homosexuality, consuming alcohol, fraud and drug trafficking.
In a video message, Abdul Malik Haqqani, the Taliban’s appointed deputy chief justice, stated final week that the Taliban’s Supreme Courtroom has issued 175 so-called retribution verdicts since taking energy, together with 79 floggings and 37 stonings.
Such verdicts set up the appropriate of a purported sufferer, or relative of a sufferer of against the law to punish or forgive the perpetrator. Haqqani stated the Taliban management is dedicated to finishing up such sentences.
After their preliminary overthrow within the U.S. invasion of 2001, the Taliban continued to hold out corporal punishment and executions in areas below their management whereas waging an insurgency in opposition to the U.S.-backed former Afghan authorities, the report stated.
UNAMA documented no less than 182 situations when the Taliban carried out their very own sentences in the course of the peak of their insurgency between 2010 and August 2021, leading to 213 deaths and 64 accidents.
Many Muslim-majority international locations draw on Islamic legislation, however the Taliban interpretation is an outlier.
U.N. Secretary-Normal Antonio Guterres has referred to as a Taliban ban on girls working an unacceptable violation of Afghan human rights.
On April 5, Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers knowledgeable the United Nations that Afghan girls employed with the U.N. mission might not report for work. Assist companies have warned that the ban on girls working will influence their capability to ship pressing humanitarian assist in Afghanistan.
The Taliban beforehand banned women from going to high school past the sixth grade and ladies from most public life and work. In December, they banned Afghan girls from working at native and non-governmental teams — a measure that on the time didn’t lengthen to U.N. workplaces.
Beneath the primary Taliban regime from 1996 to 2001, public corporal punishment and executions had been carried out by officers in opposition to people convicted of crimes, usually in massive venues corresponding to sports activities stadiums and at city intersections.