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”

B100047/2024

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 in August 2024, the Taliban enacted a set of rules governing morality, which impose brutal restrictions on personal behaviour, effectively erasing women from public life and denying their rights to freedom of expression and movement, their autonomy and identity, including by requiring women to cover their entire bodies and faces, and to be accompanied by a male guardian while traveling or using public transportation, and by banning them from singing and letting their voices be heard in public;

B.whereas these laws further criminalise and persecute LGBTQI+ people and restrict the rights of religious and ethnic minorities;

C.whereas the elimination of rights for women and girls in Afghanistan, subject to staggering restrictions on access to education, employment and public life, is the most severe gender-based repression in modern times, amounting to gender apartheid;

1.Condemns in the strongest possible terms the Taliban’s oppressive morality laws especially targeting Afghan women and girls;

2.Condemns the attempted erasure of women and girls from education, employment and public life, and the state-sanctioned violence and oppression that women face on a daily basis at the hands of the Taliban; condemns governments which are enabling the regime by normalising relations;

3.Urges the de-facto authorities to immediately reverse the recently enacted morality laws; reminds them of their obligations under international law, including the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women and Convention on the Rights of the Child, which Afghanistan has ratified; and urges them to immediately fulfil these commitments;

4.Stands in solidarity with the people of Afghanistan; reiterates its commitment with Afghan women and girls, LGBTQI+ people and religious and ethnic minorities subject to systemic discrimination and persecution under Taliban rule;

5.Insists that the de-facto authorities end the arbitrary arrest and human rights violations of women and human rights defenders; calls for their immediate and unconditional release, and for detention conditions and due process to meet international standards;

6.Urges the EU and the Member States to take the lead at the ongoing session of the United Nations Human Rights Council to create an independent mechanism to investigate, collect evidence, and identify perpetrators of human rights violations in Afghanistan;

7.Calls on the EU to support the ongoing International Criminal Court investigation in Afghanistan;

8.Calls on the EU to support efforts towards a Convention on Prevention and Punishment of Crimes Against Humanity, and seriously consider the codification of gender apartheid as a crime against humanity;

9.Calls on the EU and the Member States to bolster humanitarian aid, including relief programs addressing women’s health, education and other essential services in both urban and hard-to-reach areas; to issue humanitarian visas to persecuted women and girls; and to step up their support for Afghan civil society and human rights defenders;

10.Instructs its President to forward this resolution to the Commission, the Council, the HR/VP, the UN and the de-facto authorities in Afghanistan.