History

Drafting History of the International Declaration on Gender Apartheid and Its Destructive Consequences

The Declaration is the result of an 18-month process of global consultation with leading experts, including a series of virtual consultations with women human rights defenders (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 in-person convening was co-sponsored by the Afghan Institute for Strategic Studies (AISS), the Organization for Policy Research and Development Studies (DROPS), Nazra for Feminist Studies (Egypt), the University of Southern California Gould School of Law Gilbert Global Justice & Human Rights Center and the Women in International Law Interest Group of the American Society of International Law (ASIL), as well as the University of Michigan’s Donia Human Rights Center, Center for South Asian Studies and Ford School Weiser Diplomacy Center.

The Afghan-International drafting group which led the process from spring 2025 to spring 2026 comprised international lawyers and WHRDs: Professor Karima Bennoune, (opens in new tab) Azadah Raz Mohammad, (opens in new tab) Professor Hannah Garry (opens in new tab), and Metra Mehran (opens in new tab). Professor Bennoune chaired the drafting group, organized the Ann Arbor convening and wrote the first draft of the Declaration in December 2024 after extensive discussions with Afghan and international experts and WHRDs over several years. The drafting group worked tirelessly across time zones and despite heavy workloads to incorporate feedback received. In May 2026, Zarqa Yaftali, Executive Director of the Women and Children Research and Advocacy Network (WCRAN) and Zubaida Akbar, Afghan WHRD, joined the team and made significant contributions to the adoption and signature process and in planning the launch. The Declaration was adopted on 15 May 2026 at a hybrid convening chaired by Metra Mehran, involving participants from Afghanistan and many regions of the world.

The Spirit and Goals of the Project

This effort builds on the precedent of other experts’ declarations, signed on to by leading international legal and human rights experts, which were very influential in developing a human rights jurisprudence on a range of issues, and have been cited by UN bodies and experts, by governments and national policies and even by some courts. Its methodology has aimed to foreground the leadership of those most affected, and to build partnership between frontline defenders, especially Afghans, and their international allies.

The purposes of the Declaration on Gender Apartheid include:

  1. to promote codification of gender apartheid in the Crimes against Humanity Convention
  2. to provide Afghan WHRDs and their supporters with a tool to use pending codification and alongside it in their work to end gender apartheid,
  3. to promote the use of forward-looking gender inclusive interpretations of international law, including with respect to the concept of apartheid, and
  4. to help overcome any opposition to codification and application of the emerging international legal concept of gender apartheid.

Achieving these objectives will now depend on further action taken by WHRDs, civil society, activists, governments, scholars, jurists, UN bodies and experts, journalists and concerned people everywhere employing this text to advance women’s human rights in contexts where they are most under threat. 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.

While this Declaration has broader global scope and the concept of gender apartheid has been used by WHRDs in numerous country contexts, the text is launched in August 2026, in particular, as a sign of deep solidarity and support for the Afghan women’s movement inside Afghanistan and around the world. To them we express our profound respect for their five most recent years of unrelenting struggle against the gender apartheid policies of the Taliban and the failures of the international community to effectively address them. We also mean to convey our commitment to continue to use international law to support their efforts and leadership.

In these difficult times, though much of this story is grim, one can draw much inspiration from Afghan WHRDs, and those in other affected countries, who have simply refused to give up. It is time for the international community to show even a fraction of the determination that they do to advance foundational norms of international law every single day. They remind us all of the power of relentless commitment to equality and dignity even in a context of the most extreme discrimination and dehumanization. They remind us in these times of global backlash against women’s rights that we should all find ways in our own contexts to use international law to keep the ideals of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights alive.

Acknowledgements

Many people made important contributions to the development of the Declaration. The research assistance of University of Southern California law students Jeana Song and Yixin Wang, as well as University of Michigan law student Lura Morton who worked on the project for over a year, has been of great support. Those students also participated in a highly skilled team of conference assistants along with Francesca Bagala, Clarisse Baudraz-Vonck, Isabel Bysiewicz and Jordan Smith whose hard work and dedication was essential to the success of the September 2025 and May 2026 meetings.

The University of Michigan Law School made significant contributions to the process, as did its conference planning, publicity and audio-visual staff, including Jenny Rickard and Alex Wroble. The University of Southern California and Professor Hannah Garry were crucial partners. It is important to also acknowledge the assistance and advice provided by Najia Haneefi, Roya Boroumand, Stephanie Farrior, Britt Gronemeyer from the End Gender Apartheid campaign who helped with logistics for the spring 2025 virtual consultations, and the vital expert input of all those who provided written comments on successive drafts, and those who participated in every one of the consultations and convenings, especially those who travelled from around the world to do so.

Professor Penelope Andrews championed the Declaration throughout the process with grace, strategic vision and wisdom, and advised in profound and essential ways. Thanks are also due to Dr. Fatou Sow who supervised the French translation, and University of Michigan law student Amanda Feldman who assisted her. Profound gratitude is due to the Afghan Institute for Strategic Studies, and Haanya Malik, for their generous translation of the Declaration text and the launch press release into Farsi and Pashto. Finally, we acknowledge Bud Parr and his team @thenewdynamic.com for their excellent work constructing the Declaration website.

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;

-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

-rejects cultural relativist justifications for gender apartheid;

-underscores the historic role of frontline women human rights defenders in affected regions, including in Afghanistan, in labeling and opposing gender apartheid;

-affirms the importance of an intersectional, victim-centered approach to gender apartheid;

-calls for human rights scrutiny of all proposed engagement with perpetrators of gender apartheid;

-stresses that complicity with perpetrators of gender apartheid is prohibited;

-addresses humanitarian and refugee implications of gender apartheid; and

-highlights the need for accountability for perpetrators and remedies for victim-survivors.