In a historic move, the United Nations Human Rights Council has adopted a resolution establishing an independent investigative mechanism to examine the widespread and ongoing human rights violations in Afghanistan. The decision has been hailed by international human rights organizations as a powerful signal of global resolve to end the culture of impunity for perpetrators of international crimes in the country.
Human Rights Watch welcomed the adoption, urging the UN Secretary-General and member states to act swiftly and decisively to operationalize the mechanism.
According to the resolution passed on October 6, 2025, the mechanism will investigate past and present human rights abuses, including war crimes and crimes against humanity committed by the Taliban and other actors. The collected evidence will be preserved and prepared for future judicial proceedings, both nationally and internationally.
The European Union introduced the resolution, which gained broad support across regional and political lines. The mechanism will particularly focus on systematic violations against women and girls in Afghanistan, including gender-based persecution, which constitutes a form of sexual violence under international law.
The resolution also extends the mandate of the UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in Afghanistan, whose monitoring and reporting role will complement the work of the new mechanism.
Human Rights Watch stated, “Member states of the UN Human Rights Council have sent a clear message of determination to ensure that those responsible for international crimes in Afghanistan—past or present—will be held accountable.”
Fereshta Abbasi, Afghanistan researcher at Human Rights Watch, emphasized the urgency of implementation:
“It is crucial that this new mechanism begins its work without delay—to collect, preserve, and prepare evidence, and to build cases against those responsible for atrocities in Afghanistan.”
The resolution comes in response to years of advocacy by Afghan and international human rights groups calling for an end to the entrenched impunity that has enabled ongoing abuses. In August 2025, a coalition led by the Afghanistan Human Rights Defenders Network (HRD+), supported by 108 national and international organizations, renewed its demand for the creation of such an investigative body after four years of sustained lobbying.
The mechanism, modeled on similar structures for Syria and Myanmar, will adopt a comprehensive approach to documenting international crimes. It will investigate all individuals involved in implementing or enforcing Taliban policies that violate international law—including those tied to the regime’s “Virtue and Vice” apparatus.
Its scope, however, is not limited to Taliban abuses. The mechanism will also examine serious human rights violations committed by former Afghan government officials, warlords, non-state armed groups, and international forces over the past two decades.
Fereshta Abbasi described the EU’s leadership as “principled and historic,” noting that the unanimous adoption of the resolution sends “a powerful message against double standards in justice and growing global commitment to accountability for international crimes.”
The resolution calls on the UN Secretary-General to swiftly establish and fund the mechanism, even amid the organization’s financial crisis, emphasizing the urgency for Afghan women and girls who live daily under severe Taliban restrictions.
Earlier this year, the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued arrest warrants for Hibatullah Akhundzada, the Taliban’s supreme leader, and Abdul Hakim Haqqani, the group’s chief justice, on charges of crimes against humanity in the form of gender persecution. The new UN mechanism is mandated to cooperate closely with the ICC and to protect individuals assisting international investigations from threats or sanctions.
Human Rights Watch concluded that the resolution marks a turning point:
“Members of the Human Rights Council have sent a clear message to victims, their families, and all those courageously fighting for justice in Afghanistan—that their voices have been heard, and their suffering will not be forgotten.”
The establishment of this investigative mechanism has been described by rights organizations as a historic and unprecedented step toward justice and accountability for Afghanistan’s countless victims of human rights abuses.
