A new report released by the Tufts University’s Feinstein International Center is intensifying calls for international accountability, concluding that the Taliban’s governance in Afghanistan is in direct and systematic violation of global legal obligations to protect women and girls.
The report, Legal Commitments, Systemic Violations: A Comprehensive Analysis of the Taliban and CEDAW Obligations in Afghanistan (2021–2025), offers the first structured legal analysis of Taliban rule measured against the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), a treaty Afghanistan ratified in 2003 without reservations.
Launched during an international webinar featuring legal experts, human rights advocates, and former Afghan officials, the report frames the current situation not only as a humanitarian crisis but as a sustained breach of binding international law.
“This is a legal and evidentiary study”, said Professor Dyan Mazurana of Tufts University, who led the research in the study. “It asks a straightforward but critically important question: how do the Taliban’s laws, policies and practices align with or depart from Afghanistan’s obligations under international law?”
Drawing on 379 sources, including UN reports, legal analyses, and verified accounts, the report finds and once again confirms that Taliban policies have created a system of gender-based discrimination that spans virtually every sector of life.
Restrictions on education, employment, movement, health care, and participation in public life are not isolated measures but part of a broader, coordinated framework. The report concludes that these policies are “systematic, cumulative, and mutually enforcing,” resulting in the large-scale exclusion of women and girls from Afghan society.
Since taking power in August 2021, the Taliban have dismantled key legal and institutional protections, including the Ministry of Women’s Affairs and the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission, replacing them with enforcement structures that formalize restrictions on women’s lives.
The result, these researchers argue, is not just a rollback of rights but a complete restructuring of governance that is fundamentally incompatible with CEDAW.
Speakers during the webinar emphasized that Afghanistan’s ratification of CEDAW represented a binding commitment, not a symbolic gesture.
“When Afghanistan ratified CEDAW in 2003 without any reservation, it was more than a symbolic act,” said Dr. Sima Samar, former chair of the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission. “It was a promise…that their rights would be protected, their voices heard and their future would be secured.”
“That promise has not been kept,” she added, describing the current situation as a “systematic, institutionalized violation” of the convention.
According to the report, the Taliban have issued over 100 decrees that violate women’s fundamental rights, a major contributor to what experts describe as one of the most severe gender crises in the world.
“The denial of education and work to women and girls increases poverty,” Dr. Samar said. “It results in child marriage and forced marriages…it steals the future of half the population.”
She warned that the longer these restrictions remain in place, the more they risk becoming normalized, both within Afghanistan and internationally.
“A culture of impunity is one where violations carry no consequences,” she said. “Where discrimination becomes normalized, where silence replaces accountability.”
The report repeatedly echoes this concern as it notes that widespread violations are being carried out with near total impunity, reinforcing patterns of exclusion and inequality.
Speakers repeatedly returned to a central challenge: moving from documenting abuses to enforcing consequences.
Rangita de Silva Alwis, a member of the UN Committee on the Elimination fo Discrimination Against Women, described accountability as “the most powerful promise of the convention,” stressing that legal mechanisms must now be fully utilized.
She pointed to ongoing efforts at the International Criminal Court and the International Court of Justice, including emerging cases brought by multiple states, as critical steps toward accountability. These efforts are closely tied to growing calls to formally recognize gender apartheid as a crime against humanity, which would strengthen the legal basis for prosecution.
Dr. Samar also underscored the stakes of inaction. “The question is whether the international community will allow this commitment to be erased without consequences.”
Discussion during the webinar outlined several concrete steps forward. These include expanding international legal action through the ICC and ICJ, increasing state participation in accountability cases, and continuing efforts to codify gender apartheid under international law.
Speakers also emphasized the importance of sustained political pressure. Engagement with the Taliban, they argued, must consistently center on Afghanistan’s legal obligations under CEDAW rather than treating women’s rights as a secondary issue.
The report makes clear that Afghanistan’s obligations under CEDAW remain in force regardless of the Taliban’s recognition status, placing responsibility on the international community to respond.
“In defending CEDAW, we must defend the principle that no regime…is above the human dignity of women,” Dr. Samar said.
The report ultimately frames Afghanistan as a test case. Whether international actors move beyond documentation toward enforcement will determine not only the future of Afghan women and girls, but also the credibility of global commitments to human rights.
Afghan women and girls continue to resist, document, and demand their rights despite immense risk. Their fight has not stopped, and the grip they hold on their dreams has not loosened. What remains uncertain is whether the international community will match that persistence with action. Without sustained pressure, enforcement, and accountability, the system described in this report will not only endure, it will deepen.