Monitoring Desk
ISLAMABAD/NEW YORK: UN group of human rights experts has urged the Afghan Taliban to stop public floggings and executions.
The UN experts said that “we call on the de facto officials to immediately build a moratorium on the death executions, prohibit flogging and other physical torture that constitute punishments or other inhuman treatment or degrading punishment and guarantee a fair trial and due process according to global standards.”
UN experts count flogging
UN experts said that since 18 November, more than 100 women and men have reportedly been publicly whipped in several Afghanistan provinces, including Kabul, Takhar, Logar, Laghman, and Parwan.
The floggings took place on the ground in the presence of Taliban authorities, they said.
Every person received between 20 and 100 floggings for alleged crimes such as theft, illegitimate relationships, and violating the code of social behaviour.
The UN experts said that while criminalizing relationships outside of wedlock seems gender-neutral, punishment is overwhelmingly directed against girls and women.
The previous week, Taliban officials carried out what is believed to be the first public death execution since August 2021.
The UN human rights office said that it was a deeply disturbing societal development.
Media reports said that the man put to death had been charged with a murder case and was shot by his father, the victim, and the execution took place in a stadium ground.
The Deputy Prime Minister and Chief Justice of Afghanistan were in attendance, as were other senior leaders of the Taliban.
The UN experts said that public floggings and death plenty began after the Supreme Leader of the Taliban, Haibatullah Akhundzada, on 13 November, ordered the judiciary to implement Hudood and punishments.
They stated that public floggings and public executions violate global principles prohibiting torture and other cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment.
The UN experts said that the public spectacle of these punishments makes them especially undignified and distasteful.
The experts said Afghanistan is a party to a UN covenant that prohibits punishment, inhuman treatment, and degrading torture.
They said that We are raising doubts about the fairness of the trials preceding these treatments, which apparently have not satisfied basic fair trial guarantees.
UN experts said that International human rights law prohibits the implementation of such cruel treatment, especially the death execution.
