Canberra mentioned the Taliban officers are responsible of oppressing girls and ladies, 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 state of affairs within the nation, significantly for ladies and ladies.
Australia’s International Minister Penny Wong mentioned in an announcement on Saturday that Canberra had established a “world-first” autonomous sanctions framework for Afghanistan, which might enable it to “straight 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 mentioned, 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 Greater Training 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 right this moment, we have now additionally introduced the primary listings beneath the brand new framework.
— Senator Penny Wong (@SenatorWong) December 5, 2025
Wong mentioned the officers had been sanctioned as a consequence of their involvement “within the oppression of girls and ladies and in undermining good governance or the rule of regulation”.
“This consists of limiting entry to schooling, employment, freedom of motion and the flexibility to take part in public life,” she mentioned.
Canberra mentioned 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 Prison Courtroom (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 girls and ladies.
Saying the sanctions, the ICC mentioned the Taliban has “severely disadvantaged” women and girls of the rights to schooling, 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 ladies, together with the best to work and examine.
The Taliban has rejected accusations of violating girls’s rights, claiming they’re revered “throughout the framework of Islamic regulation”.
In December 2022, Afghanistan’s Ministry of Greater Training banned female students from the nation’s universities till additional discover, in a transfer broadly condemned by the worldwide neighborhood.
Final yr, the UN mentioned the Taliban authorities had “deliberately deprived” no less than 1.4 million ladies of their proper to an schooling throughout its time in energy, completely about 80 p.c of school-age ladies.
Afghans have additionally been plunged further into poverty because the Taliban takeover, fuelled partly 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 mentioned the Australian authorities “stays deeply involved on the deteriorating state of affairs” 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 beneath the Taliban’s oppression, in addition to the Afghan neighborhood in Australia,” she mentioned.
