The Battle Against Gender Apartheid

Four years since the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan, the country is fading from public discourse in Europe and globally. International accountability is one of the few pathways to demonstrate solidarity with women of Afghanistan and keep hope for change alive. For millions of Afghan women and girls whose dreams and ambitions have turned to ash due to the Taliban’s restrictions on education, employment, movement, and access to justice, international accountability remains their window of hope. While there are steps to hold the Taliban accountable through the International Criminal Court (ICC), the possibility of a potential case before the International Court of Justice (ICJ), as well as a campaign to codify gender apartheid, these efforts must be strengthened to drive change and sustain hope.

Last year, in September 2024, four countries – Germany, Australia, Canada and the Netherlands – announced a legal initiative to hold the Taliban accountable for violations of the Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW). While welcoming this important initiative, the Afghan women’s rights groups and human rights community publicly shared their recommendations and concerns with the Applicant States. They called for meaningful and safe consultations with the affected community inside and outside Afghanistan, inclusive participation, transparency and notification about the process, as well as for broad-based support through outreach to the Global South and Muslim-majority countries. A year later, Afghan women and human rights defenders are still waiting for concrete action. In the meantime, the Taliban crackdown on women’s rights continues to worsen, alongside worrying signs of normalization of the Taliban in the region and beyond. Germany’s deportations of Afghans and its “technical contacts” with the Taliban to facilitate more deportations contradict its promises of protection and the spirit of this initiative to stand in solidarity with the women and people of Afghanistan.

August 2025 marked four years since the Taliban’s illegal and violent return to power in Afghanistan. In this time, they have succeeded to implement their vision of a religious, autocratic and oppressive regime. The Taliban have enforced restrictions on women and girls’ rights to education, movement and employment. Women’s faces and voices are banned from the media, women are denied access to parks, museums, restaurants, gyms, and even female-only spaces like beauty salons. The Taliban’s oppression extends to girls and children, as girls as young as 9 years old are punished for their outfits and are denied entry to schools. Emboldened by the lack of a coordinated international response, the Taliban are entrenching their restrictions through repressive laws and cracking down on limited existing exemptions such as the work of UN’s female staff. In the latest attack on women’s rights and international law, the Taliban turned back UN’s female staff from offices, leading to UNHCR’s suspension of its activities.

Afghan women have long described this system as “gender apartheid.” The Taliban’s oppressive and discriminatory policies towards women are systematic, institutionalized, and integral to their system of governance. In the Taliban’s vision, all women and girls are subordinate to men and boys. They use all institutions at their disposal – including schools, universities and media – to promote this vision. By the end of 2024, the Taliban had issued 130 edicts directly targeting women. In August 2024, the Taliban introduced the“Promotion of Vice and Prevention of Virtue” Law, codifying the erasure of women from public life.

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My organization, Rawadari, has documented the increasing implementation of the law and its impact on society. A young woman from my extended family, Nargis (not her real name), trained as a midwife and spent several years working in remote parts of South Afghanistan to deliver life-saving services to women and newborns. When the Taliban first took over, she was frightened and discouraged but decided to remain and continue her work. As the restrictions required her to cover up more and to have a male relative living and travelling with her, she and her family continued to adjust so she could carry out her vital work. At the same time, she was studying to qualify as a doctor. After the PVPV law was passed in August 2024, and medical education for women was closed in December 2024, she and her family’s patience finally ran out, and she moved to Pakistan in early 2025. Alone, unemployed and at risk of deportation, she has lost her job, community, legal protection and homeland – and Afghanistan lost a dedicated and experienced midwife. Hers is one of thousands of devastating stories of this gender apartheid.

Taliban institutions, particularly the Taliban intelligence and the Ministry for Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice (MPVPV) utilize illegal detention, enforced disappearances, and torture to punish those who defy the Taliban’s gender apartheid. The Taliban are implementing strict censorship and eliminating civic space and independent media. Through thousands of newly-founded madrassas (i.e religious schools), they are aiming to train a new army of followers among young Afghan women and men. Meanwhile, they enjoy continued normalization as they make diplomatic gains in the region and beyond, including the official recognition of their regime by Russia in July 2025.

For women in Afghanistan, the future seems grim, while the world seems indifferent. In this devastating context, international action is not symbolic but essential: it combats a culture of impunity, prevents further violations, and preserves hope for the courageous women fighting for dignity and rights under one of the most oppressive regimes in the world. All accountability efforts must be reinforced to prevent the normalization of the Taliban both inside and outside Afghanistan.

As we mark one year since the CEDAW initiative, Germany must follow through with the commitment to hold Afghanistan accountable for violations of CEDAW, possibly through a case at the International Court of Justice. To demonstrate credibility, consistency and commitment to international law, Germany must halt deportationsto Afghanistan and build broad-based support, including among Global South and Muslim majority countries. Germany’s position in the South Africa v. Israel case at the ICJ has impacted its credibility and weakened potential diverse alliances for the CEDAW initiative. A broad alliance of supporting States will send a stronger message to the Taliban, who tend to be more sensitive to the positions of regional Muslim States. Germany must now demonstrate that this initiative is a serious commitment to support women’s rights in Afghanistan, and not just a symbolic announcement or leverage on the Taliban for deportations.

The CEDAW initiative is one of several current pathways to accountability for human rights violations in Afghanistan and complements other important efforts. One of them is the campaign of Afghan women for the codification of gender apartheid. Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and the Special Rapporteur for the Human Rights Situation of Afghanistan have endorsed this call. It is time for Germany to support it, too. The proposed Crimes Against Humanity treaty is an opportunity to fill a gap in international law and thus protect women’s rights by recognizing gender apartheid. Germany must stand with Afghan women protestors, activists and survivors and support their inclusion.

In July 2025, the ICC issued arrest warrants for two Taliban leaders – a rare step toward accountability after decades of impunity for crimes committed in Afghanistan. Germany and other applicant states must support the ICC’s mandate on Afghanistan and beyond to hold the Taliban accountable for gender persecution and deter ongoing violations. Additionally, the Afghan human rights community has been calling for an independent, international accountability mechanism for Afghanistan to support accountability for crimes and violations committed in the past, as well as ongoing crimes. This mechanism, hopefully established in the ongoing UNHRC session, could immensely contribute to a potential ICJ case as well as the ICC investigation and universal jurisdiction by providing credible documentation and evidence.

Afghan women and human rights defenders have been relentless in their pursuit of justice and accountability. In addition to calling on Member States to act, Afghan civil society has taken action by organizing the People’s Tribunal for Women of Afghanistan before the Permanent People’s Tribunal. This initiative will provide Afghan women survivors a “day in court” and create another opportunity to reveal the systematic nature of Taliban gender persecution, while aiming to mobilize greater solidarity and action for women of Afghanistan. In the hearings in Madrid, Spain, this October, Afghan prosecutors will reiterate the call for an all-tools approach to accountability, including concrete steps on the CEDAW initiative.

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As Afghan women living under gender apartheid challenge the Taliban and fight for hope, despite immense suppression, danger and despair, Germany and the world must join their struggle for justice, dignity and rights. At a time when powerful and wealthy states attack human rights and international law, Germany needs to correct course and strengthen accountability rather than breaking promises, emboldening the Taliban and undermining its own domestic and international credibility.

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Editor’s Pick

by MARIE MÜLLER-ELMAU

As a political theorist, Ingeborg Maus thought many things long before most of her male contemporaries did: For example, she shows why the rule of law and democracy are not opposing theoretical ideals – parliaments making laws on the one side, courts imposing limits on the other – but necessarily interwoven. Parliaments legislate, thereby addressing courts and the executive, which implement and enforce the law. Reading her is worthwhile for the sheer sharpness with which she uncovers entanglements where others presume binaries, and for the way she exposes the premises, interconnections, and consequences of democratic theories that also illuminate and refine today’s diagnoses of political crises. The Frankfurt theorist passed away almost a year ago. My Pick, then: read more Ingeborg Maus, discuss her work, and pass it on.

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This Week on Verfassungsblog

summarised by CHARLOTTE HERBERT

“Gaza is burning,” Israel’s Defense Minister Katz just announced on the platform “X.” Already in August, Katz had spoken so drastically about the impending offensive in Gaza that more than 20 Israeli international law scholars issued a letter warning of the gravest violations of international law. Katz’s statement, they wrote, “ostensibly indicates an intent to carry out manifestly unlawful acts that may give rise to criminal responsibility under both international and Israeli law for all those involved. Indeed, these words can be understood as signaling a complete abandonment of the fundamental principles of the law of armed conflict and even of the IDF’s own values.” The document is just one of numerous memoranda and letters in which Israeli international law scholars have expressed their views on the war in Gaza. In July, we made these largely unpublished documents available on our site, with an introduction, systematic analysis, and now a freshly updated version by KAI AMBOS (EN).

Beyond Israel and Palestine, too, the war in Gaza continues to preoccupy legal scholars. Yet, not all academic contexts allow for open discussions of the war. ANNA SOPHIA TIEDEKE and JEAN D’ASPREMONT (EN) have discussed the complex mechanisms of censorship and self-censorship.

Far less will likely be heard in the future from Jair Bolsonaro. In a high-profile trial, Brazil’s former president and would-be coup leader was sentenced to 27 years in prison. EVANDRO PROENÇA SÜSSEKIND (EN) sees this as an important lesson in the fight against authoritarian populism. However, for Brazil to truly immunize itself against such dangers, it must confront its military legacy.

In the United States, Donald Trump ordered the U.S. Navy on September 2 and again on September 15 to destroy small speed boats in the Caribbean. In both cases, all on board died. International lawyers have uniformly criticized the killings as unlawful. This may well be President Trump’s most dangerous assault on the rule of law to date, says MARY ELLEN O’CONNELL (EN).

The independence of Thailand’s judiciary likewise appears to be capsizing. The Constitutional Court removed Paetongtarn Shinawatra from her office as Prime Minister, labeling her “unethical.” For KHEMTHONG TONSAKULRUNGRUANG (EN), this ruling is yet another sign of judicial encroachment on politics in Thailand.

In the European Union, tensions between law and politics may soon be brought to the fore by the pending EU-Mercosur Trade Agreement. Members of the European Parliament are considering a request for an opinion from the European Court of Justice (ECJ) on the agreement’s compatibility with EU law. CHRISTINA ECKES (EN) welcomes this development, explaining why the agreement could indeed undermine climate protection.

According to MATTIS LESON (EN), it is likewise incompatible with EU law to base the new SAFE regulation on Article 122 TFEU. While the regulation is intended as a response to the security challenges following Russia’s war of aggression, he argues that the Commission has elevated the norm into a general clause, enabling profound changes without parliamentary involvement.

MARIA SKÓRA (EN) examines the recent ECJ ruling on the Polish judiciary. Since the Chamber for Extraordinary Review and Public Affairs at the Polish Supreme Court lacks independence and impartiality, national courts must regard its decisions as null and void.

France does not face the same institutional problems, yet the institutions of the Fifth Republic have recently come under increasing pressure. After François Bayrou lost the confidence vote, Sébastien Lecornu became Prime Minister. GIOVANNI CAPOCCIA (EN) explains why France’s political crisis is far from over and what challenges lie ahead for Lecornu.

Chancellor Merz plans to engage in tough debates on social reforms, including cuts to child and youth services. BASTIAN BASSE (GER) explains why educational assistance programs function as democratic training grounds – and why cutting them would be fiscally unwise, politically short-sighted, and legally risky.

Not merely risky but outright unconstitutional, according to ANNE-MARLEN ENGLER (GER), is the federal government’s draft bill for reforming the Common European Asylum System (CEAS). Under the proposal, refugees could, under certain circumstances, be prevented from leaving reception centers for up to a year – a restriction that constitutes not only a limitation of freedom but an unlawful deprivation of liberty.

Questions of constitutional compliance recently arose in Rhineland-Palatinate and North Rhine-Westphalia, where two AfD mayoral candidates were barred from running; both exclusions were later confirmed by the courts. ANDREAS NITSCHKE (GER) considers the decisions legally understandable but highlights the challenge for electoral committees in assessing candidates’ adherence to constitutional principles.

A response to Matthias Frehe’s text from last week, which advocated a “parallel voting” system (a mixed-member electoral system in which voters cast one ballot for a constituency candidate and another for a party list, with the two tiers operating independently rather than compensatorily), comes from FABIAN MICHL (GER). Even under such a system, voters would ultimately face the same alternatives as before – a choice between parties. Anyone wishing to choose not just a party but also its personnel in parliament would not need trench voting, but simply the party membership – which is easier to obtain.

How is media freedom in the EU faring? Poorly, ZUZANNA NOWICKA (EN) summarises. She sees a glimmer of hope, however, in the EU Media Freedom Act, which came into force in early August and, in her view, provides for transparency, editorial independence, and concrete obligations for private companies. According to Nowicka, Article 3 even grants enforceable rights to independent media, meaning that, in her assessment, violations of media pluralism could be challenged before national courts.

From media freedom, it is only a small step to the question that will likely occupy us even more in the future: how much human oversight is needed in the age of AI? SEBASTIAN SCHWEMER and IDA KOIVISTO (EN) discuss whether mechanisms in EU regulations designed to preserve human intervention actually serve as safety mechanisms – or have become largely symbolic.

Bridging the themes of media, AI, and academia, MICHAEL GRÜNBERGER (GER) explains why he refuses to sign a proposed AI contract addendum issued by the publisher Beck. From a copyright law, competition law, and scholarly perspective, the clauses are problematic. His advice to fellow academics: do not sign.

To conclude, let’s turn our gaze upward – into space: JASPER TRETOW (GER) examines the European Commission’s proposal for the “EU Space Act” and warns that blanket exemptions for military use of “space objects” weaken the regulation’s coherence and effectiveness. The proposal dates back to June, but as my colleague says: “No matter – space is 13 billion years old and will be around a little while longer.”

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That’s it for this week. Take care and all the best!

Yours,

the Verfassungsblog Team

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