QC launches appeal to support female judges in Afghanistan

Baroness Helena Kennedy QC has launched an emergency appeal to support judges, lawyers, human rights activists and their families seeking to flee Afghanistan.

As part of the #EvacuateHer campaign, Kennedy has also launched a petition, urgently calling on the UK government to provide sanctuary to judges and lawyers.

The Afghan Relocation and Assistance Policy (Arap) despite initially designating judges as eligible to relocate to the UK due to their work with British authorities and their immediate threat to safety, no longer deems them so.

In the past 20 years, around 270 women have sat as judges in Afghanistan, many of whom have been involved in rulings that have permitted women to exit abusive marriages, upheld female rights to education and work, and have convicted members of the Taliban, Isis and other Islamist militant groups.

Such records put these women at high risk of persecution by the Taliban who overthrew the Afghan capital of Kabul on August 15th.