The European Union adopted, this Tuesday, March 7, sanctions against individuals and entities responsible for sexual violence and violations of women’s rights in six countries including Afghanistan, Iran and Russia, an unprecedented and symbolic step. on the eve of March 8, International Women’s Day. “By imposing these sanctions, we are sending a clear message to the culprits: that their crimes will not go unpunished,” said Dutch Foreign Minister Wopke Hoekstra. “These horrific and inhuman crimes have consequences. It is also a message to the victims: the EU will support you, wherever you are in the world”.
Among those sanctioned with asset freezes and an EU entry ban are two Taliban officials: Higher Education Minister Neda Mohammad Nadeem and Virtue Promotion and Prevention Minister of vice, Mohammad Khalid Hanafi. “Since taking office, the Taliban have issued decrees banning women from attending higher education across the country. These decrees deprive women of their right to education as well as equal access to education, in violation of the principle of equal treatment between men and women”, points out the EU concerning the first, while the second is targeted for its “decrees limiting the freedom and dignity of women and girls across the country.
Several Russian officials are also on this list. Like the Moscow police chief, Alexander Fedorinov, sanctioned for having “in March 2022 […] authorized the arbitrary arrest and detention, as well as the subsequent torture, of women demonstrating against the war”. As well as two senior Russian military officials, Nikolai Kuznetsov and Ramil Ibatulline, for sexual violence and rape committed by men under their command in Ukraine in March and April 2022, which testify to “a planning” of these crimes.
A prevalence of sexual violence
Another name on the list: Burmese Deputy Interior Minister Toe Ui, accused of allowing military security personnel under his authority to use “forced nudity, rape, electric shock, burning of parts genitals and excessive violence during arbitrary detentions and interrogations of men, women” and in particular “members of the LGBTQI community”. Toe Ui is a former head of the Military Bureau (OCMSA) which oversees detention and interrogation centers in Burma, one of three EU-sanctioned entities. Just like the women’s prison in Qarchak (Iran), where detainees are victims of “sexual abuse by the guards” and “often threatened with rape to extract confessions from them”.
“In its conclusions of 14 November 2022, the Council of the EU expressed concern about the disproportionate impact that armed conflict continues to have on women and girls around the world, as well as the prevalence of violence sexual and gender-based violence, including conflict-related sexual violence, offline and online, and pledged to redouble efforts to combat such violence in order to ensure that those responsible are fully held accountable and to combat impunity”, one can read in the official journal of the EUMarch 7.