As the fifth anniversary of the Taliban’s return to power approaches, more than 50 prominent experts in international law and human rights have called for gender apartheid to be formally recognized as a crime under international law.
The appeal is contained in the “International Declaration on Gender Apartheid and Its Devastating Consequences,” a document scheduled to be officially launched on 13 August. Its stated objective is to support the struggle of Afghan women and girls while strengthening international efforts to criminalize gender apartheid.
According to the organizers, the declaration is the result of 18 months of consultations involving international legal scholars and Afghan women’s rights advocates. It has been endorsed by more than 50 prominent figures, including Nobel Prize laureates, former international judges, former senior United Nations officials and leading human rights defenders.
The declaration calls on the international community to explicitly include the prohibition of gender apartheid in the proposed Convention on Crimes Against Humanity and to use international legal mechanisms to hold perpetrators accountable and provide remedies for victims.
The signatories argue that Afghan women and girls have borne the greatest burden of the Taliban’s restrictions since 2021. They also express concern over efforts by some international actors to normalize relations with the Taliban despite continuing restrictions on women’s rights.
The initiative comes amid growing international debate over whether systematic discrimination and exclusion based on gender should be recognized as a distinct international crime alongside existing prohibitions under international law.
