More Than 50 Experts Call for Criminalizing Gender Apartheid Under Taliban Rule
DID Press: More than 50 prominent lawyers and human rights advocates have called for the recognition and criminalization of gender apartheid under international law, ahead of the fifth anniversary of the Taliban’s return to power.
The group issued an “International Declaration on Gender Apartheid,” which is scheduled to be unveiled on Aug. 13. The declaration was endorsed by international legal experts, Nobel laureates, former judges of international courts, and human rights advocates from Afghanistan and South Africa.
The document, prepared following 18 months of consultations among legal experts and Afghan women’s rights advocates, seeks to support Afghan women’s rights campaigns and strengthen efforts to criminalize gender apartheid under international law.
The declaration calls on the international community to explicitly include a prohibition on gender apartheid in the proposed convention on crimes against humanity and to make greater use of existing legal mechanisms to address the practice.
The signatories said that while all Afghans under Taliban rule face political, security and economic crises, women and girls have been subjected to the greatest pressure. They said the Taliban have established a system based on gender discrimination by barring girls from education, restricting women’s employment and public participation, and imposing sweeping restrictions on their daily lives.
The declaration also cites the detention of dozens of women in Herat over alleged violations of Taliban dress regulations and the subsequent suppression of protests as examples of the group’s continued policies.
The signatories criticized efforts by some international actors to normalize relations with the Taliban and called for accountability for those responsible for the policies, as well as reparations for victims.
The declaration is scheduled to be launched virtually on Aug. 13, hosted by the University of Michigan Law School, with women’s rights activists, legal experts and international figures expected to speak at the event.