Canberra stated the Taliban officers are responsible of oppressing ladies and women, in addition to ‘undermining good governance’.
The Australian authorities has imposed monetary sanctions and journey bans on 4 officers in Afghanistan’s Taliban authorities, citing the deteriorating human rights scenario within the nation, significantly for girls and women.
Australia’s International Minister Penny Wong stated in a press release on Saturday that Canberra had established a “world-first” autonomous sanctions framework for Afghanistan, which might enable it to “instantly impose its personal sanctions and journey bans to extend stress on the Taliban”.
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The brand new framework additionally introduces an arms embargo, Australia’s Division of International Affairs and Commerce stated, in addition to prohibitions on “offering associated providers and actions to Afghanistan”.
The division named the sanctioned Taliban officers as Minister for the Propagation of Advantage and the Prevention of Vice Muhammad Khalid Hanafi; Minister of Increased Schooling Neda Mohammad Nadeem; Minister of Justice Abdul-Hakim Sharei; and Chief Justice Abdul Hakim Haqqani.
The Australian Authorities has established a world-first autonomous sanctions framework for Afghanistan, as a part of our ongoing efforts to carry the Taliban to account.
In impact from as we speak, now we have additionally introduced the primary listings below the brand new framework.
— Senator Penny Wong (@SenatorWong) December 5, 2025
Wong stated the officers had been sanctioned as a result of their involvement “within the oppression of girls and women and in undermining good governance or the rule of legislation”.
“This consists of proscribing entry to training, employment, freedom of motion and the flexibility to take part in public life,” she stated.
Canberra stated its new framework “builds on” the 140 people and entities it already sanctions as a part of the United Nations Safety Council’s Taliban framework.
Afghanistan’s Taliban authorities is but to publicly reply to Canberra’s newest measures.
In July, the Worldwide Felony Court docket (ICC) issued an arrest warrant for Chief Justice Haqqani, alongside the Taliban’s supreme chief, Haibatullah Akhunzada, for alleged crimes in opposition to humanity for persecuting ladies and women.
Saying the sanctions, the ICC stated the Taliban has “severely disadvantaged” women and girls of the rights to training, privateness, household life and the freedoms of motion, expression, thought, conscience and faith.
Since returning to energy following the withdrawal of United States and NATO troops – of which Australia was an element – from Afghanistan in August 2021, the Taliban has enacted extreme restrictions on the rights and freedoms of girls and women, together with the fitting to work and research.
The Taliban has rejected accusations of violating ladies’s rights, claiming they’re revered “throughout the framework of Islamic legislation”.
In December 2022, Afghanistan’s Ministry of Increased Schooling banned feminine college students from the nation’s universities till additional discover, in a transfer broadly condemned by the worldwide neighborhood.
Final yr, the UN stated the Taliban authorities had “intentionally disadvantaged” at the very least 1.4 million women of their proper to an training throughout its time in energy, completely about 80 p.c of school-age women.
Afghans have additionally been plunged additional into poverty for the reason that Taliban takeover, fuelled partially by the ban on feminine participation within the office, with huge swaths of the nation’s inhabitants now closely reliant on humanitarian assist to outlive.
In her assertion, Wong stated the Australian authorities “stays deeply involved on the deteriorating scenario” within the nation, persevering with {that a} “humanitarian allow” had been carved out within the new sanctions framework, permitting the continued provision of assist.
“Our ideas are with these struggling below the Taliban’s oppression, in addition to the Afghan neighborhood in Australia,” she stated.
