GENEVA: The United Nations Human Rights Council on Monday adopted a landmark resolution establishing an independent investigative mechanism to examine grave human rights abuses in Afghanistan — a move Human Rights Watch (HRW) hailed as a major step toward accountability for victims of war crimes and crimes against humanity.
Adopted by consensus and led by the European Union, the resolution mandates the new mechanism to collect and preserve evidence of serious violations committed by the Taliban and other actors, identify those responsible, and prepare case files for future prosecution in national or international courts. The body will also focus on ongoing violations, particularly the Taliban’s systematic repression of women and girls, which HRW and UN experts have said amounts to gender persecution.
“Countries at the UN Human Rights Council have together sent a strong message of their resolve to ensure that those responsible for serious international crimes in Afghanistan now or in the past will one day face justice in court,” said Fereshta Abbasi, Afghanistan researcher at Human Rights Watch. “It’s crucial for the new mechanism to get up and running quickly so that it can begin to collect, prepare, and preserve evidence, and build files on those responsible for international crimes in Afghanistan.”
The new investigative body answers years of appeals from Afghan and international human rights groups to address entrenched impunity in the country. In August 2025, a coalition led by HRD+, a network of Afghan human rights defenders, and supported by more than 100 global organisations, renewed its call for the mechanism after four years of campaigning.
The Human Rights Council also extended the mandate of the UN Special Rapporteur on human rights in Afghanistan, whose ongoing monitoring and reporting will complement the work of the new body.
Modelled on similar investigative mechanisms established for Syria and Myanmar, the Afghanistan mechanism will pursue a comprehensive approach, covering all individuals and entities responsible for violations of international law. This includes Taliban leaders, provincial directors, governors, and officials enforcing repressive edicts such as the Propagation of Virtue and Prevention of Vice law, which has stripped Afghan women and girls of education, healthcare, and freedom of movement.
Beyond Taliban abuses, the body’s mandate extends to investigating crimes by officials of the former Afghan government, warlords, non-state armed groups, and members of international forces implicated in serious violations.
“The European Union has demonstrated principled leadership by putting forward this resolution for an investigative mechanism on Afghanistan,” Abbasi said. “By adopting the resolution by consensus, UN Human Rights Council member states have sent a powerful message against double standards for justice or a hierarchy of victims.”
The UN secretary-general has been tasked with operationalising the mechanism urgently, even as the organisation faces financial constraints. HRW noted that rapid implementation is particularly vital given the daily restrictions and persecution Afghan women and girls face under Taliban rule.
The resolution also calls for close coordination between the new mechanism and the International Criminal Court (ICC), which recently issued arrest warrants for two senior Taliban officials on charges of crimes against humanity for gender persecution. It further condemns threats and attacks against the ICC and those cooperating with it.
“UN Human Rights Council members have sent a clear message to victims, their families, and all those bravely fighting for justice in Afghanistan that their voices have been heard, and that their suffering is neither invisible nor erasable,” Abbasi said. “The UN secretary-general should ensure the mechanism is promptly rolled out, and UN member states should ensure funding is made available for it to begin its work.”
