“Fresh decrees issued by the de facto authorities in Afghanistan in 2026 make it more difficult for a woman to separate from a spouse and implicitly authorize child marriage and violence against women and children.”

Volker TürkStatementOctober 7, 2026Read the original

Volker Türk, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, made the claim in a UN News story published on 1 September 2026.

Our verdict

Unverified

We could not find enough public evidence to confirm or refute this claim. The available records show that the de facto authorities in Afghanistan did issue new decrees in 2026, and that one of them makes it harder for women to separate from a spouse, but the full legal texts are not public, so we cannot verify the specific allegation that the decrees implicitly authorise child marriage and violence against women and children.

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What we found

Volker Türk, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, made this claim in a UN News story on 1 September 2026. We found strong evidence for parts of it. The Georgetown Institute for Women, Peace and Security reported that the Taliban issued a new Criminal Procedural Regulation for Courts in January 2026, and Princeton's School of Public and International Affairs confirmed a decree on 7 January 2026 establishing those regulations. UNAMA, the UN mission in Afghanistan, reported that Decree No. 18, issued on 14 May 2026, created a restrictive and unequal judicial process for women seeking separation compared with men. UN human rights experts also said in June 2026 that an April 2026 decree on the separation of spouses makes it difficult for women to leave abusive relationships and validates child marriage. However, the central part of the claim — that the decrees themselves contain wording that implicitly authorises child marriage and violence against women and children — rests only on statements by UN officials. We could not obtain the primary legal text of the 2026 decrees, and no source we found sets out the specific clauses that would amount to such implicit authorisation. A UNAMA human rights update for April to June 2026 documents ongoing restrictions on women but does not mention these specific provisions. Because the key allegation cannot be checked against the decrees themselves, we rate the claim unverifiable. We could not find enough public evidence to confirm or refute it. If you have a copy of the decrees or other direct evidence, please send it to us.

The evidence

3 of 6 sources support the claim; none contradict it.

Contradict 0Support 3Background 3

When each source was published

Supports the claim
The Georgetown Institute for Women, Peace and Security reported that the Taliban issued a new Criminal Procedural Regulation for Courts in January 2026.
giwps.georgetown.edu· The Taliban’s New Criminal Regulation Legalizes Slavery, Violence, and Repression of Women - Georgetown Institute for Women, Peace and Security
January 30, 2026
Supports the claim
Princeton's School of Public and International Affairs confirmed that the Taliban's Supreme Leader issued a decree on 7 January 2026 establishing the Criminal Procedural Regulations for Courts.
spia.princeton.edu· The Taliban Legal System and the 2026 Criminal Procedural Regulations
February 16, 2026
Supports the claim
UNAMA reported that Decree No. 18, issued on 14 May 2026, creates a restrictive and unequal judicial process for women seeking separation compared with men.
unama.unmissions.org· UNAMA Statement on Afghanistan’s De Facto Authorities’ Decree No. 18 “Code on Judicial Separation of Spouses”
May 21, 2026
Background
UN human rights experts said an April 2026 decree on the separation of spouses makes it difficult for women to leave abusive relationships and validates child marriage.
ohchr.org· Afghanistan: Taliban decree on separation of spouses further erodes rights of women and girls, warn UN experts
June 18, 2026
Background
Volker Türk stated that a February 2026 decree legitimises violence against women and children.
ohchr.org· High Commissioner Türk: Afghanistan must end persecution of women and girls
February 26, 2026
Background
A UNAMA human rights update for April to June 2026 documents ongoing restrictions on women's rights and hijab enforcement but does not mention the specific decrees on divorce, child marriage or violence against women cited in the claim.
UNAMA· Update on the human rights situation in Afghanistan: April – June 2026
July 1, 2026

What we could not confirm

The primary legal text of the 2026 decrees is not publicly available, so we could not check whether their wording implicitly authorises child marriage or violence against women and children.
No source we found sets out the specific clauses that would amount to such implicit authorisation.
We found no contemporaneous legal analysis or expert commentary that directly interprets the language of the decrees.

How we checked

We looked at UN statements and press releases, reports from UNAMA and the UN human rights office, and commentary from the Georgetown Institute for Women, Peace and Security and Princeton's School of Public and International Affairs. We searched for the primary legal text of the 2026 decrees but could not find it in the public record. We reviewed 7 relevant sources.

Help us check this claim

We could not find enough public evidence to confirm or refute this claim. If you know of an official record, dataset, transcript or report that settles it, send us the link. We review every submission and update this fact check when the evidence changes the picture.

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