Amnesty International: Taliban’s Police Law Deepens Repression in Afghanistan

Image: Bülent Kılıç / AFP / Getty Images

Amnesty International has described the Taliban’s “Police Law” as another broad assault on human rights in Afghanistan, saying the law has serious implications for fair trial rights, freedom of expression, privacy, children’s rights and police powers.

The organisation said on Wednesday (26 August), in a post on X responding to the law, that one of its “most egregious” provisions is the complete ban on all demonstrations in Afghanistan, a restriction it says is a clear violation of the right to freedom of peaceful assembly.

Amnesty International said: “With such a sweeping ban, this decree further deepens the suffocating climate of repression and severe restrictions on fundamental freedoms in Afghanistan.”

The organisation also said the restriction has been imposed while the Taliban continue to target protesters and opponents through arbitrary arrest and detention, torture and other ill-treatment, and enforced disappearance.

Amnesty International called on the Taliban to immediately repeal all decrees and policies that are inconsistent with Afghanistan’s obligations under international law and to end practices that violate those obligations.

The Taliban’s “Police Law” was recently published by the group’s Ministry of Justice. Article 50 of the law prohibits all demonstrations within the territory of Afghanistan.

The formal ban on demonstrations comes after women have been among the main groups protesting over the past five years against Taliban restrictions on education, work, freedom of movement and social participation. With the implementation of this law, a ban that had previously been enforced in practice through the suppression of protests has now also been incorporated into the Taliban’s formal legal framework.