Toronto, Canada

The International Centre for Human Rights (ICHR) strongly welcomes the International Criminal Court’s decision to issue arrest warrants for Taliban leader Hibatullah Akhundzada and the group’s Chief Justice Abdul Hakim Haqqani, for crimes against humanity through gender-based persecution of Afghan women and girls.

The Court’s judges found reasonable grounds to believe the Taliban leadership intentionally targeted women and girls, depriving them of basic human rights and freedoms including education, privacy, freedom of expression, and movement solely based on gender.

ICHR views this ruling as a critical precedent for global justice, and a long-overdue recognition of how authoritarian and theocratic regimes weaponize gender-based oppression as a tool of control.

We call on the international community — including the United Nations, European Union, and the ICC — to extend this same level of scrutiny, investigation, and accountability to the Islamic Republic of Iran, where for over four decades, the regime has committed systemic and violent repression of women, girls, and peaceful citizens.

In Iran, the criminal and terrorist regime of the Islamic Republic has systematically targeted women with rape, torture, and execution. Since 2022, over 22,000 women have been arrested, hundreds injured, and at least 850 killed during protests. Thousands more live under daily surveillance, threats, and gender apartheid.

This is not governance it is a war on women:

  • Women denied education, freedom of dress, and voice

  • Peaceful protesters arrested, tortured, disappeared, and killed

  • Political prisoners sentenced without due process

  • A regime that uses fear and censorship to survive


ICHR reminds the world: Human rights are not regional  they are universal. No government, no matter how powerful, should be above international law.

We urge the ICC to open formal investigations into the Islamic Republic’s crimes especially the violent crackdown on protesters, executions, and the gender apartheid imposed under religious rule.


International Criminal Court is responsible for investigating and prosecuting individuals for the most serious crimes of concern to the international community, including:

  • Genocide

  • Crimes against humanity

  • War crimes

  • The crime of aggression

The ICC prosecutes individuals not states  and aims to hold perpetrators of major human rights violations accountable when national courts are unwilling or unable to do so.

Justice must be blind but not silent.

International Centre for Human Rights (ICHR)
Toronto, Canada
Justice. Dignity. Accountability.