Gianni Tognoni, a representative of the Permanent Peoples’ Tribunal, said on the opening day of the tribunal’s hearings that Afghan women and girls are suffering the gravest violations of their rights under Taliban rule.

He said the tribunal aims to “decolonise” the ongoing oppression of Afghan women, describing it as a transformation of Soviet-era colonialism into a new form of “internal colonialism” enforced in the name of religion.

Tognoni noted that while the tribunal has previously examined human rights abuses in Afghanistan during the Soviet occupation, the Taliban’s actions now represent an even deeper challenge to international law. He called the implementation of Taliban-imposed laws not only a crime against humanity but also a systematic assault on fundamental rights, carried out through active repression and the denial of collective dignity and freedoms.

Tognoni added that the Taliban laws do not merely violate individual rights, but deliberately target the collective rights of the entire population.

A representative of the tribunal’s secretariat said the Taliban, by defining women as “the other” and “the enemy,” have subjected Afghan women to widespread, systemic abuses that have rendered them voiceless and exposed them to the most extreme forms of mistreatment.

He added that the violation of Afghan women’s rights has also eroded the credibility of the international community, prompting the Permanent Peoples’ Tribunal to take up the issue.

Tognoni warned that the suffering of Afghan women should not be viewed in isolation. He added that when such atrocities are committed against Afghan women, they set a precedent that may permit similar crimes against women elsewhere in the world.