June 19, 2025—To mark International Day for the Elimination of Sexual Violence in Conflict, our colleague Valeria Babără was invited to address the Dutch Senate during a special roundtable on the situation in Afghanistan. The intervention focused on the urgent need to codify gender apartheid as a crime against humanity.

Drawing on decades of feminist legal advocacy and lessons from the Rome Statute negotiations, the intervention traced the long struggle to name and prosecute gender-based crimes within international law. It underscored a critical truth: codification matters. Without naming a crime, justice cannot begin.

“Even when crimes are codified, accountability is never guaranteed. But without codification, it’s impossible.”

The statement centered on the lived realities of Afghan and Iranian women and girls who face systematic exclusion, institutionalized violence, and enforced invisibility under regimes designed to dominate and dehumanize them. These harms, while sometimes addressed under existing legal frameworks like gender persecution, are not fully captured.

Gender apartheid—like racial apartheid before it—describes an ideologically-driven system of governance that institutionalizes the supremacy of one group over another. As our colleague argued before the Senate, this structural harm requires legal recognition. Codifying gender apartheid would strengthen global accountability mechanisms, send a clear diplomatic signal, and offer survivors the recognition they are demanding.

The intervention called on the Dutch government and other State Parties to:

• Champion the inclusion of gender apartheid in the upcoming Crimes Against Humanity treaty;

• Use the term “gender apartheid” in diplomatic forums;

• Amplify the voices of Afghan and Iranian women leading this global call.

Read the full intervention here.