On 10 October, 2024, the UN General Assembly’s Sixth Committee, which deals with matters of international law, will hold a critical debate on the prevention and punishment of crimes against humanity. Crimes against humanity include murder, the use of rape and sexual violence as a weapon, torture, enslavement, forced transfer, imprisonment and other inhumane acts committed as part of a widespread or systematic attack directed against any civilian population. While these are widely recognized in customary international law, and certain legal texts such as the Rome Statute, there is no international treaty explicitly tackling crimes against humanity.
This debate comes at a time when crimes against humanity are prevalent, disproportionately affecting vulnerable populations across the globe. It is vital that Member States and observers of the United Nations move forward with treaty negotiations to address these atrocities, determine clear legal definitions, procedures for tackling, and avenues for ensuring justice for perpetration of these very serious crimes.
In 2019 the International Law Commission, a body consisting of UN elected experts responsible for helping to develop international law, adopted Draft Articles on Prevention and Punishment of Crimes Against Humanity. The Draft Articles provide a robust basis for formal negotiations. The upcoming debate represents a crucial opportunity to advance the process. The Sixth Committee must decide by November 2024 whether to start formal negotiations to create a treaty based on these proposals. A comprehensive treaty would ensure accountability, deter potential perpetrators and provide an opportunity to incorporate recent progress in addressing sexual and gender-based violence, such as including crimes of gender apartheid, forced marriage, reproductive violence, and enslavement.
The concept of gender apartheid, spearheaded by Afghan women human rights defenders in response to the systematic subjugation of women and girls under Taliban rule, offers a critical opportunity to expand the concept of apartheid to recognize gender-based oppression, ensuring accountability for those who perpetrate such systemic violations1. As seen in multiple contexts, the institutionalized repression of women, girls, and LGBTQI+ individuals are a stark reality and must be recognized and addressed as a crime against humanity. Without this recognition, millions will continue to suffer under regimes of oppression, domination, and exclusion.
“Today unimaginable crimes against women are occurring in Afghanistan and Iran — witnessed and observed by the world — and yet met with impunity. Inhumane acts committed in the context of an institutionalized regime of systematic oppression and domination by one gender group over another are termed gender apartheid. As was seen with racial apartheid in South Africa — the imposition of a system of apartheid not only results in inter-generational political, social and economic consequences, but also leads to physical and mental harm. This is why it is imperative that gender apartheid is recognized as a crime against humanity.” – Narges Mohammadi, Nobel Peace Prize laureate
It is imperative that the Draft Articles and the subsequent treaty on crimes against humanity explicitly include gender apartheid as a crime, recognizing the intersectional vulnerabilities of groups such as Iranian and Afghan women, who are systematically oppressed based on gender. Similarly, groups like the Rohingyas and Palestinians have long endured institutionalized discrimination and violence rooted in race and ethnic-based oppression. By addressing apartheid in its various forms—whether rooted in race, ethnicity, or gender—recognition of it within a treaty on crimes against humanity would provide comprehensive protections for all victims of systemic oppression, marking a crucial step toward justice and accountability.
“If we want to understand apartheid in its true sense, we have to say that apartheid means discrimination. And any kind of discrimination is reprehensible, whether it is based on gender, gender identity or the sexual orientation of the population.” – Dr Shirin Ebadi, Nobel Peace Prize laureate
Nobel Women’s Initiative calls on Member States and observers of the United Nations to:
- Support the advancement of formal treaty negotiations on crimes against humanity based on the Draft Articles, ensuring the inclusion of provisions recognizing gender-based crimes such as sexual and gender based-violence, and gender apartheid.
- Incorporate specific provisions to prevent gender apartheid, acknowledging the severity of this crime and the need for international legal frameworks to hold perpetrators accountable.
- Ensure that the treaty-making process is inclusive of women human rights defenders and civil society.
We also encourage activists, advocates, justice practitioners, experts, and government representatives to sign the Joint Statement in Support of Progress toward a Crimes Against Humanity Treaty, which, to date, is supported by almost 600 organizations and individuals.
The time to act is now. By moving forward with these negotiations, the international community can take a stand against the pervasive crimes that devastate communities, leaving legacies of trauma and injustice. We owe it to the victims and survivors to ensure that their suffering is not met with inaction, but with decisive legal frameworks that provide justice and accountability.