To mark the tragic fifth anniversary of the second Taliban takeover of Afghanistan, and of Afghan women’s heroic resistance to it, the International Declaration on Gender Apartheid and Its Destructive Consequences will be formally launched today. In doing so, we wish to respect the view expressed by woman human rights defender (WHRD) Zubaida Akbar at an event organized by FEMENA and Rawadari on Monday, August 10: “We refuse to let this anniversary belong to the Taliban.”
Among the 12 principles contained in the Declaration is a clear definition of gender apartheid as “inhumane acts committed in the context of an institutionalized regime of systematic oppression and domination by one gender group over any other gender group or groups and committed with the intention of maintaining that regime.”
Furthermore, the signatories urge the international community to act: “Failure to effectively address gender apartheid will perpetuate grave human rights violations, undercut the rights advocacy of women on the frontlines of such systems of oppression, and undermine women’s internationally guaranteed rights everywhere.”
Overview of the Declaration text
The document explains the ways in which gender apartheid violates international law, and how international law should be used and developed to counter it. It gathers in one place the major statements by UN experts and officials on gender apartheid to document progress toward recognizing the concept in international law. Importantly, the Declaration rejects cultural relativist justifications for gender apartheid. This last point was essential, as I knew being a former UN special rapporteur in the field of cultural rights.
In its paragraphs, the Declaration underscores the historic role of frontline women human rights defenders in affected regions in labeling and opposing gender apartheid. In terms of methodology, the Declaration affirms the importance of intersectional, victim-centered approaches to gender apartheid. In addition, it calls for human rights scrutiny of all proposed engagement with perpetrators of gender apartheid. In the face of increasing efforts to normalize the Taliban, the Declaration stresses that complicity with perpetrators of gender apartheid is prohibited.
It also addresses humanitarian and refugee implications of gender apartheid. It asserts that gender apartheid gravely exacerbates humanitarian crises, and must be ended to enable adequate humanitarian response.” In this regard, it recognizes that “principled and non-discriminatory aid delivery is a matter of life and death in humanitarian crises.” However, it underscores some UN agencies’ own previous conclusion that “protection of human rights and humanitarian action are and must be mutually reinforcing.”
The Declaration focuses on what the human and legal consequences of gender apartheid should be. For example, it also states that women and girls fleeing situations of gender apartheid should be presumed to qualify for refugee status.” Crucially, the Declaration highlights the need for accountability for perpetrators of gender apartheid, and remedies for victim-survivors. In a concluding call to action, the Declaration calls for an immediate end to gender apartheid, including in Afghanistan, and for the comprehensive use and development of international law to those ends.
Why was this document adopted?
The purposes of the Declaration include:
1) to promote codification of gender apartheid in the Crimes against Humanity Convention currently being drafted in the United Nations,
2) to provide Afghan WHRDs and their supporters with a tool to use pending codification which will not happen before 2029, because women on the frontlines cannot wait, and
3) to promote the use of forward-looking gender inclusive interpretations of international law, including the concept of apartheid, so as to more effectively support efforts to end gender apartheid as soon as possible.
Achieving these objectives will now depend on further action taken by all of us employing this text to advance women’s human rights. Those of us involved in the long journey of drafting and adoption would be most grateful if you would share the Declaration as widely as possible so that its reach and capacity to serve frontline WHRDs is enhanced. Other possible actions to promote the Declaration could include organizing further translations of the text, developing tool kits for using the declaration in multiple languages (as was done with other experts’ declarations), hosting informational events in multiple languages, and citing the Declaration in advocacy and scholarship.
The Origins of Introduction to the Declaration
The Declaration on Gender Apartheid is the result of an 18-month process of global consultation with leading experts, from Afghanistan and around the world, including a series of virtual consultations with WHRDs from Afghanistan in spring 2025 and an in-person convening of United Nations (UN) experts, Afghan and South African WHRDs, civil society representatives, and international law experts at the University of Michigan Law School in September 2025. That latter convening was co-sponsored by a number of groups, including the Afghan Institute for Strategic Studies (AISS), the Organization for Policy Research and Development Studies (DROPS), and Nazra for Feminist Studies (Egypt).
A joint Afghan-iInternational drafting group led the process of incorporating the feedback from spring 2025 to spring 2026. Other Afghan colleagues joined in the adoption and signature process and consulted on virtually every aspect. The process was constrained by the small resources available to the unbranded project, the many demands on all those involved, and the backlash we have been seeing against the concept of gender apartheid in certain quarters. However, the project succeeded against all odds. The Declaration is now available in English, Farsi, Pashto, and French on its dedicated website: www.genderapartheiddeclaration.org. We are very grateful to the Afghan Institute for Strategic Studies for the Farsi and Pashto translations. A Spanish version is also being prepared.
The Declaration has been signed by 61 people, including some of the world’s foremost experts in the fields of international law and women’s human rights, and on the human rights situation in Afghanistan. The signatories hail from every region of the world. They include diverse, prominent Afghan and South African advocates, the former pPresident of Ireland Mary Robinson and the former vVice pPresident of Costa Rica Elizabeth Odio Benito, as well as three Nobel laureates, former and current United Nations officials and experts, and former judges from some of the world’s leading national and international courts. While individual signatures are now closed, just as was the case with other similar documents, we will continue to collect endorsements from organizations going forward.
Gender apartheid and the future
At this fifth anniversary of the return of the Taliban, let us take strategic action together to achieve the goals of the Declaration, using it and other tools, in support of the Afghan women’s movement, and other frontline defenders working to oppose gender apartheid systems in existence – or their creation. Let us act together in a concerted manner across our differences, including different strategies and approaches. Let us remind the international community that, as the declaration says in its final operative paragraph, “[f]ailure to effectively address gender apartheid will perpetuate grave human rights violations, undercut the rights advocacy of women on the frontlines of such systems of oppression, and undermine women’s internationally guaranteed rights everywhere.”
This International Declaration on Gender Apartheid and Its Destructive Consequences is a tool which can be used alongside others in the “all tools” toolkit for tackling Taliban abuses. It is also meant as a joint message of sincere solidarity with Afghan women human rights defender colleagues at this time. Afghan WHRDs remind us again and again of the power of relentless commitment to equality and dignity. By defying repression in their own country, they have inspired the world and helped to change international law itself – a process which must continue and accelerate.
At this fifth anniversary as we launch the Declaration, I am reminded that Afghan WHRDs embody the words of Afghanistan poet Shafiqa Deebaj, whose work was featured in the event sponsored by Femena and Rawadari on Monday, August 10. She wrote:
A thousand times, with blows of the axe,
they struck me to the ground;
a thousand times I grew again,
for I am made of pine.
In these times of global backlash against women’s rights, Afghan women human rights defenders remind us that we should all find ways in our own contexts to grow back a thousand times in the face of all the axes aimed at women in today’s world. The Declaration on Gender Apartheid commemorates this resilience, and hopes to help keep it alive internationally in years to come.
Karima Bennoune is the Lewis M. Simes professor, University of Michigan Law School, and Former UN special rapporteur in the field of cultural rights (2015-2021)
