Displaced International (DI) Statement on the United Nations Human Rights Council’s Resolution Establishing an Independent Investigative Mechanism on Afghanistan and Addressing Forced Displacement Resulting from Human Rights Violations
Displaced International (DI) welcomes the adoption by consensus of the United Nations Human Rights Council’s resolution establishing an Independent Investigative Mechanism on Afghanistan. This landmark decision represents a decisive step toward justice and accountability for the Afghan people—especially the millions forced from their homes by the Taliban’s systemic repression and gender-based persecution.
Over the past four years, the Taliban’s gross and institutionalized human rights violations—particularly against women and girls—have been among the principal drivers of Afghanistan’s ongoing displacement crisis. Women have been barred from education and work, stripped of mobility, and silenced under a system of gender apartheid that has dismantled their place in public life and destroyed livelihoods across the country.
“For too many Afghan women and girls, Taliban rule has meant not governance but erasure—denying them schooling, medical care, employment, and even the right to exist in public life,” said Ambassador Ashraf Haidari, DI’s President and Founder. “These policies have forced millions of women and their families to flee their homes in search of safety and dignity. This resolution gives voice to those silenced, a shield for their humanity, and a pathway toward justice and eventual return.”
We commend the European Union and all Council members for their leadership and unity in advancing this long-overdue mechanism. Its mandate—to collect, preserve, and analyze evidence of war crimes, crimes against humanity, and other grave violations—lays the foundation for future prosecutions in national and international courts. Crucially, its focus on gender persecution acknowledges that the systematic oppression of Afghan women is not only a moral outrage but a crime under international law.
We urge the United Nations and its Member States to ensure the swift enforcement and full implementation of this resolution. It must not remain a symbolic declaration. The new mechanism requires sufficient resources, independence, and sustained political support to transform documentation into accountability and justice. Survivor participation, protection of witnesses, and inclusion of displaced communities—especially women-led organizations—must remain at its core.
Displaced International stands ready to cooperate with the mechanism by sharing evidence, field data, and testimonies gathered through our ongoing advocacy and partnerships with Afghan refugees and internally displaced persons. We reaffirm our unwavering commitment to ensuring that Afghanistan’s victims—particularly its displaced women and girls—remain at the center of the global struggle for truth, justice, and lasting peace.
