KABUL, AFGHANISTAN – Afghanistan has been placed in the “very high risk” category in the 2026 Global Torture Index, among the world’s worst rankings, with the World Organization Against Torture (OMCT) saying Taliban authorities have legalized certain forms of torture and ill-treatment under their laws.
The report, released on Thursday, assessed conditions in 39 countries and found Afghanistan at the highest level of concern across nearly all indicators, including political commitment against torture, ending impunity, victims’ rights, and civic space.
OMCT said the Taliban, since returning to power in August 2021, have effectively severed Afghanistan’s international commitments, including the United Nations Convention Against Torture and its Optional Protocol, both ratified under the former government.
“Not only does the state not criminalize torture and cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment, but the Taliban has legalized torture in its Criminal Procedure Code for Courts, which states that a man can beat his wife if she disobeys,” part of the report reads.
The report said torture and ill-treatment, including incommunicado detention, enforced disappearances, and public punishment, remain widespread in Taliban policing operations and detention centers.
The Taliban’s General Directorate of Intelligence and the Ministry for the Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice play central roles in arbitrary arrests and abusive practices, the report found.
The report added that people are often detained without warrants or judicial process for reasons such as their clothing, men not having beards, or women being outside their homes without a male guardian, or mahram.
Physical abuse including flogging and waterboarding, along with psychological torture such as threats to family members, humiliation and forced religious conversion, are commonly reported. Some detainees have been held in shipping containers for days with inadequate food and water.
According to the report, the number of female prisoners has more than doubled from 840 in 2021 to 1,825 in 2025, with prisons operating at nearly 180% capacity. Conditions include solitary confinement, collective punishment and denial of family contact.
The report added that Afghanistan’s judicial system has effectively collapsed under Taliban rule, with no independent courts, no meaningful separation of powers and limited access to legal representation, particularly for political detainees.
Convictions are often based on confessions and testimony, the report said, raising concerns that admissions may be obtained under torture or coercion.
The abolition of the former Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission has further weakened oversight, while victims of torture rarely file complaints due to fear of retaliation.
OMCT said women, children and ethnic and religious minorities remain among the most vulnerable groups under Taliban rule. It added that Taliban decrees have systematically restricted women’s access to education, employment and public life, while minorities including the Hazaras, Ismailis, Sikhs and Hindus continue to face discrimination, harassment and forced displacement.
The report also described Afghanistan’s civic space as “closed,” saying human rights defenders and activists now operate in secrecy or exile as dissent has been heavily criminalized.
The organization called for the urgent establishment of an independent torture prevention mechanism with unrestricted access to all detention centers, including those run by Taliban intelligence, as well as an international review of the Taliban’s criminal code.
Since their return to power, the Taliban have faced repeated allegations by the United Nations, international rights groups, and former detainees of torture, arbitrary detention, and enforced disappearances. The group, however, denies the allegations, dismissing them as “propaganda” and saying its actions are in accordance with Islamic law.
