gender apartheid?
What is
Gender apartheid refers to inhumane acts committed within the context of an institutionalized regime of systematic oppression and domination by one group over another or others, based on gender, and committed with the intention of maintaining such a regime.
United Nations Human Rights Council,
Working Group on the Elaboration of an International Convention on Crimes against Humanity.
Report on gender apartheid as a crime against humanity (2024)
How does gender apartheid work?
​​​​​​Gender apartheid is not isolated acts of discrimination, but rather a planned system of exclusion and control that operates in an institutionalised manner:​​
-Acts through laws and official policies that deny women and girls their fundamental rights.
-Manifests in the exclusion from public life, by limiting and prohibiting their participation in education, work, politics, or culture.
-Imposes restrictions on personal freedom, such as control over mobility or residence.
-Taken together, it creates a system where inequality is not accidental, but intentional, organised, and sustained by the State.
Explicitly recognising it as a crime in international law is key to ensuring justice and accountability for those who carry it out.
Why is it necessary to recognise it as an international crime?
-Current crimes, such as gender-based persecution, do not reflect the institutional dimension of gender apartheid.
-Recognition would allow the prosecution of entire regimes that seek to suppress the rights of women and girls.
-It would make visible that oppression is not only individual violations, but part of a structured system of domination.
-It would strengthen the international commitment to gender equality and the protection of human rights.