UN Experts Call For Inclusion of Gender Apartheid As Crime Against Humanity

United Nations experts, referring to the policies and practices of the Taliban against Afghan women and girls, have called for the inclusion of gender apartheid as a crime against humanity.

They said that gender apartheid was a "real threat" to millions of women and girls around the world.

These experts emphasised that adding gender apartheid to the list of crimes against humanity would be a long overdue recognition by the international community.

According to them, "Laws, policies and practices that relegate women to conditions of extreme inequality and oppression, with the intent of effectively extinguishing their human rights, reflect the very core of apartheid systems."

UN experts said that the Taliban's edicts, policies, and practices in Afghanistan create an institutionalised system of discrimination, oppression and domination over women and girls, which amounts to gender apartheid.

“The Taliban’s rule makes codifying gender apartheid in international law particularly urgent, as it would allow the international community to better identify and address the regime’s attacks on Afghan women and girls for what they are,” the experts added.

These experts demanded the inclusion of gender apartheid in the list of crimes against humanity under the second article of the draft articles on the prevention and punishment of crimes against humanity.

They also called on member states and the United Nations General Assembly to support the recognition of gender apartheid as a crime against humanity.

In the past two and a half years, the Taliban had issued dozens of decrees restricting women in various areas of life, such as social participation, education, employment, freedom of movement, and travel.

Several human rights experts and activists have called the Taliban's actions against Afghan women an example of "gender apartheid".

Afghan citizens and activists have repeatedly launched demonstrations in cities around the world and demanded the recognition of gender apartheid in Afghanistan.