Russian army, Taliban targeted by new EU sanctions for violence against women
Brussels, Mar 7 (EFE).- The European Union on Tuesday agreed on a package of sanctions against nine people and three organizations including Taliban ministers and high-ranking members of the Russian armed forces for sexual violence and large-scale abuse of women’s rights.
This is the first time that the EU has adopted measures to defend women’s rights around the world, a move that coincided with the eve of International Women’s Day.
“Ahead of the International Women’s Day, we move from words to action,” Josep Borrell, the EU’s foreign policy chief, said in a statement.
“No matter where it happens, we will combat and eliminate all forms of violence against women. With today’s decision, we are enhancing efforts to counter sexual and gender-based violence, to ensure that those responsible are fully accountable for their actions, and to combat impunity.”
The new restrictive measures announced by the EU applied to two acting Taliban ministers for higher education and the so-called propagation of virtue and the prevention of vice following their decisions to block women from attaining higher education and enforcing gender segregation in public space.
The sanctions would also target senior members of the Russian armed forces, “whose units systematically participated in acts of sexual and gender-based violence in Ukraine in March/April 2022, in the context of Russia’s unprovoked and unjustified military aggression against Ukraine,” the statement said.
Officers from the Moscow Police Station were also hit over their “arbitrary arrests and detentions as well as torture and other cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment.”
The sanctions, which involve an asset freeze and EU travel ban, will also be slapped on commanders of the South Sudanese militias, the deputy minister of home affairs in Myanmar as well as the country’s office of the chief of military security, Iran’s Qarchak prison and the Syrian Republican Guard. EFE
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