Resolution on the situation of women and girls in Afghanistan following the Taliban's adoption of the Criminal Procedure Code for Courts

The European Parliament adopted by 480 votes to 5, with 83 abstentions, a resolution on the situation of women and girls in Afghanistan following the Taliban’s adoption of the Criminal Procedure Code for Courts.

The text adopted in plenary was tabled by the EPP, S&D, ECR, Renew and Greens/EFA groups.

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.

Parliament strongly condemned the Code and called on the Taliban regime to immediately repeal it. It called 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.

Given that the Taliban regime has institutionalised slavery, gender apartheid and child marriage, Parliament called 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.

Lastly, the Council is also called on to extend EU global human rights sanctions to Taliban leaders responsible for the persecution of women and girls, including travel bans and asset freezes.