In a landmark move, the United Nations Human Rights Council has adopted a resolution announcing the creation of an independent accountability mechanism for Afghanistan to investigate past and ongoing human rights violations in the country.
The resolution was adopted on Monday, October 6, without a vote and without any opposition from member states. It was led by the European Union and supported by a wide coalition of countries from various regions and political groups.
Nasir Ahmad Andisha, Afghanistan’s ambassador in Geneva, stated that the resolution’s unanimous adoption leaves “no room for any state to continue supporting the Taliban.”
The newly established mechanism aims to collect and preserve evidence of serious crimes committed by the Taliban and other perpetrators, ensuring that one day they are held accountable before justice.
The resolution also extends the mandate of Richard Bennett, the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Afghanistan, and empowers the new body to investigate the conduct of Taliban leaders, governors, and other officials responsible for torture, arbitrary detention, and mistreatment of detainees.
Taliban officials who have denied women and girls their fundamental rights—including the rights to education, healthcare, and freedom of movement—will also fall within the scope of these investigations. The resolution recognizes these acts as forms of gender-based persecution.
Human rights activists, civil society organizations, and Afghan women’s protest movements had long called for the establishment of such an independent accountability mechanism, emphasizing that impunity for war crimes and gender persecution must end.
