The International Criminal Court (ICC) issued arrest warrants for senior Taliban leaders Tuesday for their alleged role in the persecution of women and girls in Afghanistan.

The warrant accused Taliban Supreme Leader Haibatullah Akhundzada and Chief Justice Abdul Hakim Haqqani of implementing extensive legal restrictions on women and girls that violate women and girls’ “rights to education, privacy and family life and the freedoms of movement, expression, thought, conscience and religion.” Although the Taliban has introduced policies that have restricted the entire population’s freedoms, the ICC concluded that there are reasonable grounds to believe that women and girls have been targeted with more severe restrictions because of their gender.

Article 7(h) of the Rome Statute defines the persecution of “any identifiable group” as a crime against humanity.

Led by figures like Akhundzada and Haqqani, the Taliban has controlled Afghanistan since the previous government collapsed in 2021. In that time, the Taliban banned women from receiving education above sixth grade, implemented severe restrictions on women and girls’ ability to access justice, banned women from practicing in the legal field, and dismissed hundreds of judges who were women.

The ICC arrest warrant imposes a legal obligation on states that have signed the Rome Statute to arrest Akhundzada and Haqqani for the purpose of bringing them to trial. Although Afghanistan is a party to the Rome Statute, since the Taliban is the de facto government authority in the country, it is doubtful that Akhundzada and Haqqani will be detained unless they travel to another country.