Calls to recognise “gender apartheid”, particularly in response to the Taliban’s treatment of women and girls in Afghanistan, reflect the urgency of ensuring credible legal responses to institutionalised gender domination. This brief affirms the importance of recognising the seriousness of gender-based harms and calls for solidarity among gender justice advocates. At the same time, it raises concerns about extending the concept of apartheid to gender without careful consideration of its historical origins and legal foundations. Apartheid emerged from specific anti-colonial struggles against racial domination, and its group-based legal structure may not fully capture the ways gendered power operates across both public and private spheres.

Rather than privileging a single legal pathway, this brief calls for strengthening accountability for gender-based oppression through existing legal provisions, including the crime against humanity of gender persecution. The brief notes that the introduction of the term “gender apartheid” may lead some states to resist the Convention, potentially undermining efforts to build wider agreement on gender justice. It therefore calls for continued solidarity among gender justice advocates, including engagement with the diverse ways gender- based harms are experienced and addressed across African contexts. It highlights the importance of including African intellectual and legal leadership in shaping responses that are historically
grounded and legally coherent.