In a grim, damning report on Tuesday, the United Nations revealed that the Taliban rule in Afghanistan has been marked with extrajudicial killings, denial of women’s rights, conscription of young boys, early marriages and even “sale of children.”
The UN report argues that since the Taliban takeover in August this year, more than 100 former Afghan national security forces have been extrajudicially killed at the hands of the Taliban. Nada al-Nashif, U.N. Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights, said that at least 50 suspected members of the local affiliate of the Islamic State known as ISIS-Khorasan – the ideological foe of the Afghan Taliban – have been killed by hanging or beheading, allegedly at the hands of the Taliban.
Al-Nashaf revealed that at least 72 of the 100 murders have been directly attributed to the Taliban. “In several cases, the bodies were publicly displayed. This has exacerbated fear among this sizeable category of the population”, she added.
In a speech to the UN Human Rights Council, Al-Nashif described the Taliban rule in Afghanistan as being marked with rampant killings and restrictions of girls’ and women’s basic rights. “The safety of Afghan judges, prosecutors, and lawyers – particularly women legal professionals – is a matter for particular alarm”
She said that the Afghan families face “severe poverty and hunger” this winter amid reports of child labour, early marriages and even “sale of children.”