_{The photos above are from the People’s Tribunal for Women of Afghanistan/Rawadari, held in October 2025.}

The pictures really tell the story of what it was like for women human rights activists to hold a special People’s Tribunal about and for the women of Afghanistan.  This isn’t a formal international court, and whatever judgment emerges next month, it will not lead directly to arrests. But this was a way for women to testify, to be heard; even back in Afghanistan itself, it was live broadcast.

Four Afghan NGOs helped set it up and the head of one, Shaharzad Akbar, told us about how the witnesses felt about giving their testimony.

We’ve touched on People’s Tribunals before – here’s a link to an interview with the prosecutor of the one on violence against journalists.

And what else is happening around the Afghan file? A new independent investigative mechanism has been established out of Geneva. (We looked at previous examples – check the interviews with the then heads of Syria, Myanmar and UNITAD)

But more specifically on gender, there’s a potential case on discrimination against women. Just over a year ago in September 2024  Australia, Canada, Germany and the Netherlands formally called upon Afghanistan to cease what the countries call violations of the UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW). If the dispute proceeds to the ICJ, it would be the first time a country has been summoned to the international court for discrimination against women.  But where’s it going? 22 additional states expressed support. So will the first four states remain in the lead?

And this year in July the ICC issued arrest warrants against the Taliban supreme leader and chief justice. Both are charged with one count of crime against humanity – persecution on gender grounds – for alleged persecution of women, girls, and members of the LGBTQI+ community.

But one big issue remains – will any accountability mechanism ever investigate fully alleged war crimes by foreign forces in Afghanistan? Check out the last in our series on the variety of national processes. And let’s see what the terms of reference are for the new IIM for Afghanistan (and whether it gets funding).

For recommendations, Shaharzad is enjoying paraenting podcasts like The Good Inside. And to understand how others are thinking, she’s reading The Maga Doctrine by Charlie Kirk.

This podcast has been produced as part of a partnership with JusticeInfo.net, an independent website in French and English covering justice initiatives in countries dealing with serious violence. It is a media outlet of Fondation Hirondelle, based in Lausanne, Switzerland.