Taliban's curbs on women's freedom may amount to crimes against humanity: UN rights expert
India TodayTaliban restrictions on the freedoms of women and girls could amount to a crime against humanity, the UN special rapporteur on human rights in Afghanistan said Friday. Richard Bennett and other UN rights experts said the Taliban's targeting of women and girls deepen "flagrant violations of their human rights and freedoms that are already the most draconian globally and may amount to gender persecution -- a crime against humanity". "In recent months, violations of women and girls' fundamental rights and freedoms in Afghanistan, already the most severe and unacceptable in the world, have sharply increased," the UN experts said in a statement. The UN Human Rights Office said separately it was "appalled" by the flogging of 11 men and three women in Afghanistan on Wednesday and called for "this abhorrent form of punishment to cease immediately".