The expansion of the definition of apartheid in order to include gender apartheid

The movement of End Gender Apartheid is asking for the expansion of the meaning of apartheid

The term apartheid was born in international law as a response to the dramatic South African experience of severe racial persecution and segregation. Hence, the term can be used only in cases of racial discrimination. However, there are countries where women are extremely marginalised; therefore, some activists believe that the crime of apartheid should also be persecuted in these realities.

End Gender Apartheid movement

Four years have gone by since the Taliban took over Afghanistan, and three years have passed from the Women, Freedom, Life movement in Iran. The livelihood of women in these two countries is extremely precarious, and they are constantly discriminated against based on their gender. This situation provoked the birth of the End Gender Apartheid movement, which fights to include gender apartheid in the definition of the term, in order to describe the reality of these women in a more truthful way (Moissac, 2024).

Legal framework on apartheid

The International Convention on the Suppression and Punishment of the Crime of Apartheid (1973) states that apartheid is a crime against humanity and therefore a violation under international law. The definition is tied to the tragic experience of South Africa; it includes a set of acts perpetuated to maintain the dominance of a particular racial group over the others. These actions can be the denial of the right to life and liberty, the emission of legislative acts with the purpose of excluding certain groups from participation in the social, economic, political, and cultural life of the country, as well as persecution and exploitation of labour (Assembly, 1973).

In 1998, the International Criminal Court was institutionalized through the Statute of Rome, in which apartheid is recognized again as a crime against humanity. However, the definition of apartheid written in this document is that of an institutionalized regime of systematic oppression and domination by one racial group over any other racial group or groups and committed with the intention of maintaining that regime. This means that apartheid can be invoked only in cases of racial discrimination (ICC, 1998). 

Why women's apartheid should be recognised

This restricted view of apartheid can be particularly troubling in countries like Afghanistan, where women’s rights are continually under attack. Recent reports witness that women are prohibited from going to secondary school, from getting the health care they require, and they are fully excluded from the political life of their country (FAQs: What it’s like to be a woman in Afghanistan in 2025, 2025). The racial element present in the definition of apartheid in both documents named above, prevents the Taliban’s government from being labelled as an apartheid regime. For this reason, numerous Afghan activists have raised the problem, asking for support from the international community, and want to achieve the inclusion of gender apartheid in the definition of apartheid (End Gender Apartheid, s.d.).

On the contrary, many argue that the expansion of the meaning of apartheid is not needed, due to the existence of the crime of persecution (Azadah Raz Mohammad, The Growing Imperative to Recognize and Codify Gender Apartheid: Demonstrating the Need and Responding to Critics, 2025). This crime is also listed in the crimes against humanity in the Statute of Rome and explicitly takes into account gender. However, the UN Working Group on Discrimination against Women and Girls has recognized that gender apartheid is “a distinct and complementary crime to gender persecution” and that “only the apartheid framework can fully capture the role of intent, ideology, and institutionalisation in gender apartheid regimes, such as Afghanistan.” Moreover, persecution fails to recognise the ideological nature of the abuse and prevents international courts from acting appropriately (United Nations, 2024). In fact, even though apartheid has not yet been prosecuted in front of the ICC, cumulative charging is an established practice in court, when cases that are judged present overlapping charges; like the one for persecution and apartheid (Azadah Raz Mohammad, The Growing Imperative to Recognize and Codify Gender Apartheid: Demonstrating the Need and Responding to Critics, 2025).

In addition, codifying gender apartheid could answer problems related to accountability, by giving victims of gender oppression a new avenue to fight back against governments and individual perpetrators. Furthermore, if gender apartheid becomes an object of UN treaties, this could also push for a stronger response through policy and legal means. Finally, it could also provoke a coordinated diplomatic action to prevent the normalisation of the Taliban regime (End Gender Apartheid, s.d.).

In conclusion, it seems that the view of what apartheid means is progressively shifting so to include also gender-based discrimination. Activists, especially from Afghanistan and Iran, are asking the international community to expand the definition of this term, because they believe that international law is not giving an adequate response to the dramatic conditions women are forced to endure.  

Bibliografia

(s.d.). Tratto da End Gender Apartheid: https://endgenderapartheid.today/

Assembly, U. N. (1973). Tratto da International Convention on the Suppression and Punishment of the Crime of Apartheid: https://www.un.org/en/genocideprevention/documents/atrocity-crimes/Doc.10_International%20Convention%20on%20the%20Suppression%20and%20Punishment%20of%20the%20Crime%20of%20Apartheid.pdf

Azadah Raz Mohammad, A. R. (2025, July 4). The Growing Imperative to Recognize and Codify Gender Apartheid: Demonstrating the Need and Responding to Critics. Tratto da OpinioJuris: https://opiniojuris.org/2025/04/07/the-growing-imperative-to-recognize-and-codify-gender-apartheid-demonstrating-the-need-and-responding-to-critics-part-ii/

Azadah Raz Mohammad, A. R. (2025, July 4). The Growing Imperative to Recognize and Codify Gender Apartheid: Demonstrating the Need and Responding to Critics. Tratto da OpinioJuris: https://opiniojuris.org/2025/04/07/the-growing-imperative-to-recognize-and-codify-gender-apartheid-demonstrating-the-need-and-responding-to-critics-part-ii/

End Gender Apartheid. (s.d.). Tratto da How: https://endgenderapartheid.today/

FAQs: What it’s like to be a woman in Afghanistan in 2025. (2024, August 2025). Tratto da UN Women: https://www.unwomen.org/en/articles/faqs/faqs-afghanistan

ICC. (1998). Tratto da Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court: https://www.icc-cpi.int/sites/default/files/2024-05/Rome-Statute-eng.pdf

United Nations. (2024, Feburary 20). Tratto da Gender apartheid must be recognised as a crime against humanity, UN experts say: https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2024/02/gender-apartheid-must-be-recognised-crime-against-humanity-un-experts-say