Public Executions Signal Deepening Human Rights Crisis In Afghanistan
(ANALYSIS) On Oct. 22, the U.N. Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Afghanistan, Richard Bennett, published a statement condemning the latest public execution in Afghanistan and calling on the de facto authorities to immediately impose a moratorium and abolish the use of the death penalty.
The statement follows the de facto Supreme Court of Afghanistan announcing on October 16 that a man had been publicly executed in a sports stadium in Badghis province after being convicted of murder. At least 11 people have been publicly executed since the Taliban seized control of Afghanistan in August 2021, with half of them in 2025.
U.N. Special Rapporteur Richard Bennett stressed: “The application of the death penalty anywhere is deeply troubling. In the context of Afghanistan, where the Taliban-controlled justice system lacks any semblance of independence or due process, it is especially alarming.”
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The use of public executions reflects a broader pattern of human rights deterioration in Afghanistan. The Taliban takeover in August 2021 was followed by reports of gross human rights violations, including extrajudicial killings, enforced disappearances, torture, attacks on journalists and human rights defenders, gender persecution and gender apartheid, and much more.
The severe restrictions on human rights are to ensure that there is no viable opposition to the Taliban, and their reign could continue unabated. The Taliban also dismantled the independent legal system and replaced it with a de facto system that flagrantly violates international standards. Apart from the specific targeting of legal professionals, the whole legal system in Afghanistan is collapsing.
As reported by the U.N. experts in 2023, “There are no standardized procedures or substantive statutes in criminal or civil matters that police, judges, or lawyers can follow. (...) Some specialized courts, including those devoted to handling sexual and gender-based violence, have been dissolved. (...) Laws and rules concerning the legal procedure, judicial appointment, and procedures for fair trials, which were implemented by the previous government, were suspended. (...) Judicial independence has been abolished, as religious scholars have replaced judges. Key de facto judicial positions have been filled primarily by Taliban members with basic religious education, rather than legal experts.”
You can read the rest of Ewelina Ochab’s post at Forbes.com.
Dr. Ewelina U. Ochab is a human rights advocate, author and co-founder of the Coalition for Genocide Response. She’s authored the book “Never Again: Legal Responses to a Broken Promise in the Middle East” and more than 30 UN reports. She works on the topic of genocide and persecution of ethnic and religious minorities around the world. She is on X @EwelinaUO.