The Taliban has endorsed a new Criminal Procedure Regulation of the Courts, which Amnesty International warns will deepen discrimination and violence against women and minority groups. The regulation imposes harsh and vague punishments, criminalizing domestic violence only when women suffer visible injuries, and restricting women’s freedom of movement by penalizing visits to family without a husband’s permission. It also institutionalizes corporal punishment, permits property destruction as a penalty, introduces broader use of the death penalty, and recognizes forms of slavery.
The regulation disproportionately targets marginalized groups by scaling punishments based on social class and enforcing strict religious compliance, with penalties for deviations from the Sunni Hanifi school of Islam. Amnesty International highlights that these measures will exacerbate human rights violations in at least seven areas, including women’s rights, freedom of religion and expression, torture and ill-treatment, death penalty application, fairness in trials, equality before the law, and the reinforcement of slavery.
Amnesty International urges the Taliban to revoke or revise the regulation to meet international human rights standards and calls on the global community to condemn its adoption. Although endorsed in January 2026 and circulated internally within the Taliban’s courts, the regulation has not yet been officially published, and its enforcement remains unclear.
