Afghanistan Penal Code

The 2017 Penal Code of Afghanistan was approved through the Presidential Legislative Decree in 2017, published by the Ministry of Justice in 2017, and came into force in 2018. As stated in a description of the law published by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), “The 2017 Penal Code has 916 articles in two sections: general penal law and specific penal law (crimes and punishments). It criminalizes international crimes listed in the ICC Statute, including war crimes, crimes against humanity, genocide and aggression, and it sets forth the criminal liability for civilian superiors or military commanders who fail to prevent or punish subordinated who commit these crimes. It further prevents an alleged perpetrator from invoking the defence of superior order for genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes, aggression against State and torture.”[1]

As the ICRC summary also notes, several of the law’s provisions are directly relevant to the ‘Children and Armed Conflict’ agenda, including that the law addresses:

• recruitment and use of children;
• sexual abuse of boys; and
• alternatives to imprisonment (of up to 5 years) and incarceration of minors (of up to 3 years) with the discretion of the judge.[2]

[1] “Penal Code, 2017: Afghanistan,” National Implementation of IHL: Legislation and Case Law, International Committee of the Red Cross, https://ihl-databases.icrc.org/en/national-practice/penal-code-2017.

[2] Ibid.