The International Criminal Court unsealed arrest warrants for Taliban education minister Habibullah Agha and higher education minister Neda Mohammad Nadeem, accusing them of the crime against humanity of gender-based persecution.
The International Criminal Court unsealed arrest warrants on 5 October for Taliban education minister Habibullah Agha and higher education minister Neda Mohammad Nadeem. AFP, via France 24, reported that the warrants accuse both men of the crime against humanity of gender-based persecution in Afghanistan.
The warrants sit inside the court’s investigation of Afghanistan. Unsealing them makes the accusations public and allows states that recognise the court to arrest the ministers if they travel. The court does not have its own police force.
The charges focus on the education portfolio, the arm of the Taliban administration that has enforced restrictions on schooling for women and girls since the group returned to power. The AFP report did not include a Taliban response in the summary available here.
Afghanistan is not a state party that has surrendered suspects to the ICC in this case. Whether the warrants change travel or diplomacy for the two ministers depends on other governments.
Further public filings would show the specific incidents the judges relied on. Those details were not restated beyond the gender-persecution accusation in the reports used for this brief.