On the deteriorating situation of women in Afghanistan due to the recent adoption of the law on the “Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice”

B100024/2024

Motion for a European Parliament resolution on the deteriorating situation of women in Afghanistan due to the recent adoption of the law on the “Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice”

(2024/2803(RSP))

The European Parliament,

 having regard to Rule 150 of its Rules of Procedure,

A.whereas Afghanistan's Taliban government enacted laws on "Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice," expanding existing discriminatory policies against women and girls; whereas these laws impose mandatory dress codes that prohibit their faces from being visible, require women to have male guardians and prohibit women's voices from being heard in public; whereas the laws also criminalize LGBTIQ+ individuals, restrict religious minorities and impose severe limits on freedom of expression;

B. Whereas the Taliban’s violations of women’s rights amount to gender apartheid and to crimes against humanity; whereas Talibans have already prohibited education for women and girls over the age of 12, excluded them from most jobs and places of leisure, severely restricted their movements and their right to receive health and legal assistance and dismantled nationwide support systems for victims of violence against women;

1.Condemns the devastating policy of gender apartheid and urges the de facto authorities to immediately restore the full, equal and meaningful participation of women and girls in public life, particularly access to education, healthcare and work;

2.Calls on the de facto authorities to stop subjecting women and girls to arbitrary arrest, detention, enforced disappearances and torture, for merely exercising their rights;

3.Denounces the relentless targeting of human rights defenders, journalists and other civil society actors, LGBTIQ+ people, ethnic and religious minorities, as well as the repression of peaceful protest and expressions of dissent;

4.Reproves the timid international condemnation of the Taliban's gender apartheid which is allowing the Taliban to create new oppressive laws; condemns the exclusion of Afghan women from United Nations meetings with the Taliban;

5.Condemns the systematic pushbacks that Afghans face at the EU external borders; Calls on the EU Member States to establish and facilitate safe and legal pathways to for Afghans at risk, including by increasing resettlement quotas, humanitarian visas and easing family reunification, particularly for women and girls; calls on them to support the application of the Temporary Protection Directive for Afghans seeking international protection and to grant international protection to Afghan women and girls on the grounds of gender-based persecution.

6.Urges the EU to step up its support to Afghan groups defending women and girls´ rights;

7.Condemns the disastrous legacy of decades of international intervention and illegal occupations, including by NATO, which have led Afghanistan to its present circumstances; reiterates its support for the ICC investigation into the international crimes committed by all parties to the conflict in Afghanistan; calls on the ICC to prioritize and accelerate the delivery of justice for victims; calls on the EU and its Member States to support this investigation ensuring the necessary resources;

8.Calls on the EU and its member states to recognise gender apartheid as a crime under international law in order to hold Afghanistan and those responsible for this crime accountable;

9.Instructs its President to forward this resolution to the EU institutions, Member States, and the de facto authorities of Afghanistan.