UN rights council decides to watch and probe into HR violations in Afghanistan

A view of the UN Human Rights Council session in Geneva (UN Photo)

GENEVA 7 Oct 2025:  The Taliban need to be more careful now as the UN Human Rights Council has decided to launch a probe into serious human rights violations in Afghanistan, reflecting growing international alarm over the Taliban's measures targeting women and girls. 

On Monday, the UN’s top rights body agreed to set up an independent investigative mechanism to gather and preserve evidence of international crimes. 

This mechanism is tasked with collecting, consolidating, and analyzing evidence of war crimes, crimes against humanity, and serious violations of international law, with a particular focus on abuses against women and girls.

The European Union led the draft resolution, which was adopted without a vote by the 47-country council in Geneva. Denmark's ambassador Ib Petersen introduced the resolution, noting that four years after the Taliban takeover by force, the human rights situation has deteriorated amid a worsening humanitarian crisis. 

He pointed out that the Taliban have entrenched repression and destroyed civic space in Afghanistan. Petersen emphasized that the council has a duty to act in solidarity with the Afghan people and address long-standing impunity.

This ongoing probe will preserve testimonies and victim stories and prepare files to facilitate independent criminal proceedings. 

It covers violations including institutionalized discrimination, segregation, and exclusion of women and girls, who face bans on many basic activities such as education beyond age 12, working, or traveling without a male chaperone. Colombia’s ambassador described this as institutionalized repression aimed at erasing women from public life.

While the resolution received consensus support, China dissociated itself, citing Afghanistan's "positive progress" on stability and economic growth, which it felt the resolution neglected.

Human rights experts, such as Fereshta Abbasi from Human Rights Watch, welcomed the probe as a clear message to the Taliban and others responsible for serious crimes in Afghanistan that evidence is being gathered for future justice.

In sum, the resolution marks a significant move holding the Taliban accountable for severe human rights abuses, especially gender persecution, while aiming to bring long-overdue justice and international scrutiny to the situation in Afghanistan.

What's in the decision?

The UN Human Rights Council resolution creating an independent investigative mechanism for Afghanistan in October 2025 is unique and historic in several ways:

It establishes an ongoing, independent mechanism tasked with collecting, consolidating, preserving, and analyzing evidence of war crimes, crimes against humanity, and grave rights abuses committed in Afghanistan since the Taliban takeover in 2021.

This mechanism is specifically empowered to identify individuals responsible and prepare case files for fair and independent prosecutions in national or international courts. This investigative approach follows precedents set with similar mechanisms for Syria and Myanmar but represents a strong, sustained accountability effort focused on Afghanistan.

The resolution targets not only Taliban leadership and officials responsible for violations—including gender persecution of women and girls regarding education, healthcare, and freedom of movement—but also covers abuses by former Afghan government officials, warlords, international forces, and non-state armed groups.

This wide scope enhances the accountability framework in ways previous UN responses did not fully achieve.

The resolution was adopted by consensus led by the EU, indicating broad international support, except for China which abstained citing stability progress. It also extended the mandate of the UN Special Rapporteur on Afghanistan's human rights.

The mechanism aims to address entrenched impunity that Afghan and international human rights groups have long campaigned against, reflecting a breakthrough in international commitment to justice and human rights in Afghanistan.

The resolution includes a novel funding clause allowing the mechanism to incrementally advance based on available resources, a response to UN budget constraints, showing pragmatic adaptation in the face of financial and political challenges.