Hostname: page-component-cb9f654ff-k7rjm Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-08-10T10:32:23.184Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Gender Apartheid and Asylum: Establishing General Risks of Gender-Based Persecution in International Refugee Law

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 December 2024

Lara-Zuzan Golesorkhi Open the ORCID record for Lara-Zuzan Golesorkhi [Opens in a new window]
Lara-Zuzan Golesorkhi*
Affiliation:
Center for Migration, Gender, and Justice, University of Portland, Portland, OR, USA
*
Email: golesork@up.edu
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Does the situation in Afghanistan amount to persecution due to the accumulation of repressive measures enacted against women and is it sufficient that women are affected by such measures merely on the basis of their gender? While these two questions remain in front of the Court of Justice of the EU, several EU member states have moved to grant asylum to women and girls from Afghanistan on general risks of gender-based persecution. This dynamism in asylum regulations across the EU has occurred alongside renewed discussions around gender-based persecution and gender apartheid in international criminal law in light of the ongoing process for a Crimes Against Humanity Treaty. In this article, I put these developments into conversation through case study method and legal-institutional analysis, and argue that the historical link between international refugee law and international criminal law provides a space to envision an integrated system of protection around gender-related claims. To this end, I offer three outlooks for establishing general risks of gender-based persecution in international refugee law and the relationship between gender apartheid and asylum.

Keywords

asylumgender apartheidAfghanistaninternational lawgender-based persecution

Information

Type
Research Article
Information
Politics & Gender , Volume 21 , Issue 2 , June 2025 , pp. 169 - 194
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2024. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the Women, Gender, and Politics Research Section of the American Political Science Association

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

Akram, Susan Musarrat. 2000. “Orientalism Revisited in Asylum and Refugee Claims.” International Journal of Refugee Law 12 (1): 7–40. https://doi.org/10.1093/ijrl/12.1.7CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Altınay, Ayse Gül, and Pető, Andrea. 2022. “Women’s Courageous Resistance to Gender Apartheid in Afghanistan: A Conversation with Shaharzad Akbar.” European Journal of Women’s Studies 29 (4): 1–17. https://doi.org/10.1177/13505068221130406CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Amnesty International. 1995. “Afghanistan: International Responsibility for Human Rights Disaster.” November 29, 1995. https://www.amnesty.org/en/documents/ASA11/009/1995/en/Google Scholar
Andrews, Penelope. 2012. From Cape Town to Kabul. Routledge, UK.Google Scholar
Anker, Deborah E., and Lufkin, Paul T.. 2003. “Gender and the Symbiosis Between Refugee Law and Human Rights Law.” Migration Policy Institute. March 1, 2003. https://www.migrationpolicy.org/article/gender-and-symbiosis-between-refugee-law-and-human-rights-law.Google Scholar
Ashraph, Sareta, Nia, Gissou, Radhakrishnan, Akila, Sarkarati, Nushin, and Yamamoto, Alyssa. 2023. “Why the Crimes against Humanity Treaty Should Codify Gender Apartheid.” Just Security. October 5, 2023. https://www.justsecurity.org/89193/why-the-crimes-against-humanity-treaty-should-codify-gender-apartheid/.Google Scholar
German Government. 2016. Federal Law Gazette I p. 394 Section 3b. https://www.gesetze-im-internet.de/englisch_asylvfg/.Google Scholar
Austria Supreme Administrative Court. 2002. “Case No. 99/20/0483, para 5.” April 16, 2002. https://www.ris.bka.gv.at/Dokumente/Vwgh/JWT_1999200483_20020416X00/JWT_1999200483_20020416X00.pdf.Google Scholar
Banjo, Damilola. 2023. “The ‘Gender Apartheid’ Happening in Afghanistan, UN Experts Say, Should Be Labeled an International Crime.” PassBlue. June 6, 2021. https://www.passblue.com/2023/06/21/the-gender-apartheid-happening-in-afghanistan-un-experts-say-should-be-labeled-an-international-crime/.Google Scholar
Bennoune, Karima. 2023. “The International Obligation to Counter Gender Apartheid in Afghanistan.” Columbia Human Rights Law Review 54 (1): 1–88.Google Scholar
CEDAW. 1992. “General Recommendation No. 19: Violence Against Women.” UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women. https://www.refworld.org/docid/52d920c54.html.Google Scholar
CEDAW. 2014. “General Recommendation No. 32 on the Gender-Related Dimensions of Refugee Status, Asylum, Nationality and Statelessness Of Women.” UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women. November 5, 2014. https://www.refworld.org/docid/54620fb54.html.Google Scholar
CJEU. 2023a. “Advocate General’s Opinion in Joined Cases C-608/22 and C-609/22.” Press Release No. 172/23. Luxembourg, November 9, 2023. https://curia.europa.eu/jcms/upload/docs/application/pdf/2023-11/cp230172en.pdf.Google Scholar
CJEU. 2023b. “Opinion of the Advocate General Richard de la Tour delivered on 9 November 2023.” Joined Cases C-608/22 and C-609/22 AH (C-608/22) and FN (C-609/22). November 9, 2023. https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/HTML/?uri=CELEX:62022CC0608.Google Scholar
Council of Europe. 2011. “Convention on Preventing and Combating Violence Against Women and Domestic Violence.” Istanbul Convention. May 11, 2011. https://coe.int/en/web/gender-matters/council-of-europe-convention-on-preventing-and-combating-violence-against-women-and-domestic-violence.Google Scholar
Crawley, Heaven. 2022. “Saving Brown Women from Brown Men? ‘Refugee Women,’ Gender and the Racialised Politics of Protection.” Refugee Survey Quarterly 41 (3): 355–80. https://doi.org/10.1093/rsq/hdac021CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dadhania, Pooja R. 2023. “Gender-Based Religious Persecution.” Minnesota Law Review 107: 1563–1619. https://minnesotalawreview.org/article/gender-based-religious-persecution/.Google Scholar
de Silva de Alwis, Rangita. 2023. “Holding the Taliban Accountable for Gender Persecution: The Search for New Accountability Paradigms Under International Human Rights Law, International Criminal Law and Women, Peace, and Security.” Public Law and Legal Theory Research Paper Series Research Paper No. 23-37. https://ssrn.com/abstract=4600599.Google Scholar
DRC. 2023. “The Danish Refugee Appeals Board Has Decided to Grant Refugee Status to Afghan Women and Girls, Who Have Applied for Asylum in Denmark.” February 6, 2023. https://pro.drc.ngo/resources/news/the-danish-refugee-appeals-board-has-decided-to-grant-refugee-status-to-afghan-women-and-girls-who-have-applied-for-asylum-in-denmark/.Google Scholar
ECRE, and AIDA. 2023. “Country Report: Differential Treatment of Specific Nationalities in the Procedure.” Accessed July 21, 2023. https://asylumineurope.org/reports/country/france/asylum-procedure/differential-treatment-specific-nationalities-procedure/.Google Scholar
Einarsen, Terje. 2011. “Part One Background, Drafting History of the 1951 Convention and the 1967 Protocol.” In The 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees and its 1967 Protocol: A Commentary, ed. Zimmermann, Andreas. Oxford, UK. Public International Law.Google Scholar
European Legal Network on Asylum (ELENA). 2022. “Sweden: Updated Legal Position on the Protection Needs of Afghan Nationals and General Recognition of the Persecution of Women and Girls in Afghanistan.” News. December 6, 2022. https://elenaforum.org/sweden-updated-legal-position-on-the-protection-needs-of-afghan-nationals-and-general-recognition-of-the-persecution-of-women-and-girls-in-afghanistan/.Google Scholar
European Parliament. 2012. “Gender Related Asylum Claims in Europe.” Policy Department. https://www.europarl.europa.eu/RegData/etudes/etudes/join/2012/462481/IPOL-FEMM_ET(2012)462481_EN.pdf.Google Scholar
European Parliament Think Tank. 2023. “Refugee Status for All Female Afghan Asylum-Seekers.” https://www.europarl.europa.eu/RegData/etudes/ATAG/2023/747913/EPRS_ATA(2023)747913_EN.pdf.Google Scholar
European Union (EU). 2011. “Qualification Directive.” EUR-Lex. December 13, 2011. https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=celex%3A32011L0095.Google Scholar
European Union Agency for Asylum (EUAA). 2023. “Country Guidance: Afghanistan.” January 2023. https://euaa.europa.eu/sites/default/files/publications/2023-03/2023_Country_Guidance_Afghanistan_EN.pdf.Google Scholar
EuroStat. n.d.a. “Asylum applicants by type, citizenship, age and sex - monthly data.” https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/databrowser/view/migr_asyappctzm/default/table?lang=en&category=migr.migr_asy.migr_asyapp.Google Scholar
EuroStat. n.d.b. “First instance decisions on applications by type of decision, citizenship, age and sex – annual aggregated data.” https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/databrowser/view/migr_asydcfsta__custom_12811517/default/table?lang=en.Google Scholar
Feith Tan, Nikolas, and Ineli-Ciger, Meltem. 2023. “Group Based Protection of Afghan Women and Girls Under the 1951 Refugee Convention.” International & Comparative Law Quarterly 72 (3): 793–817. https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/international-and-comparative-law-quarterly/article/groupbased-protection-of-afghan-women-and-girls-under-the-1951-refugee-convention/5C3801CBEF7BBE8933D126B1C85A742D. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0020589323000283.Google Scholar
Feminist Majority Foundation. 1997. “Feminist Majority Protests the Taliban’s Violation of Afghan Women’s Rights.” July 30, 1997. https://feminist.org/news/press/feminist-majority-protests-the-talibans-violation-of-afghans-womens-rights/.Google Scholar
Finish Government. 2004. Finland’s Aliens Act. Accessed July 23, 2023. https://www.finlex.fi/en/laki/kaannokset/2004/en20040301.pdf.Google Scholar
Finnish Immigration Service. 2023. “Refugee Status to Afghan Women and Girls.” February 15, 2023. https://migri.fi/en/-/refugee-status-to-afghan-women-and-girls.Google Scholar
Firth, Georgina, and Mauthe, Barbara. 2013. “Refugee Law, Gender, and the Concept of Personhood.” International Journal of Refugee Law 25 (3): 470–501. https://doi.org/10.1093/ijrl/eet034.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Foreign Policy. 2022. “Germany Is Displacing Afghan Refugees to Make Way for Ukrainians.” April 20, 2022. https://foreignpolicy.com/2022/04/20/germany-refugee-policy-afghanistan-ukraine/.Google Scholar
Freedman, Jane. 2015. Gendering the International Asylum and Refugee Debate, 2nd edition. Palgrave Macmillan, UK.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gallagher, Nancy. 2000. “The International Campaign Against Gender Apartheid in Afghanistan.” UCLA Journal of International Affairs 5 (2): 367–402.Google Scholar
Global Justice Center. 2023a. “Advancing Gender Justice in the Draft International Crimes Against Humanity Treaty.” Toolkit. August 2023. https://www.globaljusticecenter.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/20230816_GenderCAH_Toolkit_FINAL.pdf.Google Scholar
Global Justice Center. 2023b. “Joint Call to Amend the Draft Crimes Against Humanity Convention to Encompass Gender Apartheid.” Expert Legal Brief. October 5, 2023. https://www.globaljusticecenter.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/Gender-Apartheid-Expert-Legal-Brief-CAH-Treaty.pdfGoogle Scholar
Goronja, Karlo. 2020. “The Fractured Colossus: An Evaluation of Gender-Based Asylum Evaluation of Gender-Based Asylum Claims for the 2020s.” Washington and Lee Journal of Civil Rights and Social Justice 27 (1): 317–58.Google Scholar
Grey, Rosemary, O’Donohue, Jonathan, Rosenthal, Indira, Davis, Lisa, and Llanta, Dorine. 2019. “Gender-based Persecution as a Crime Against Humanity: The Road Ahead.” Journal of International Criminal Justice 17 (5): 957–79. https://doi.org/10.1093/jicj/mqz048.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hathaway, James C., and Foster, Michelle. 2014. The Law of Refugee Status, 2nd Edition. Cambridge University Press, USA. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511998300.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Helsinki Times. 2023. “Finland to Grant Refugee Status to Afghan Women and Girls.” February 16, 2023. https://www.helsinkitimes.fi/finland/finland-news/domestic/22972-finland-to-grant-refugee-status-to-afghan-women-and-girls.html.Google Scholar
Højberg Høgenhaug, Anna. 2023. “Departing from Hostile Refugee Landscapes: Women and Girls from Afghanistan to be Granted Asylum in Denmark and Sweden.” VerfBlog. February 23, 2023. https://verfassungsblog.de/departing-from-hostile-refugee-landscapes/.Google Scholar
Human Rights and Gender Justice Clinic, and MADRE. 2024. “LGBTQI+ Inclusion and the Definition of the Crime of Gender Apartheid.” Women’s Initiatives for Gender Justice. January 2024. https://4genderjustice.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/Gender-Aparthied-Inclusion-QA-Factsheet-.pdf.Google Scholar
Infomigrants. 2023. “Running from the Taliban: More Afghan Women Granted Refugee Status in Germany.” July 13, 2023. https://www.infomigrants.net/en/post/50324/running-from-the-taliban-more-afghan-women-granted-refugee-status-in-germany.Google Scholar
International Criminal Court. 1998. “Rome Statute”. https://www.icc-cpi.int/sites/default/files/2024-05/Rome-Statute-eng.pdf.Google Scholar
International Criminal Court. 2017. “Public Redacted Version of ‘Request for Authorisation of an Investigation Pursuant to Article 15’ ICC-02/17-7-Conf-Exp, ICC-02/17-7-Red.” Prosecutor`s Afghanistan Request. November 20, 2017. https://www.icc-cpi.int/sites/default/files/CourtRecords/CR2017_06891.PDF.Google Scholar
International Criminal Court. 2018. “Al Hassan Case ICC-01/12-01/18.” Accessed November 17, 2023. https://www.icc-cpi.int/mali/al-hassan.Google Scholar
International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia. 1997. “Trial Judgement of 7.5.1997 – IT-94-1-T (Prosecutor v. Duško Tadić).” Para. 694.Google Scholar
International Service for Human Rights (ISHR). 2023. “End Gender Apartheid.” Accessed October 27, 2023. https://ishr.ch/campaign/end-gender-apartheid/.Google Scholar
Kelley, Ninnette. 2001. “The Convention Refugee Definition and Gender-Based Persecution: A Decade`s Progress.” International Journal of Refugee Law 13 (4): 559–568. https://academic.oup.com/ijrl/article-abstract/13/4/559/1516195.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kelley-Widmer, Jaclyn, and Rich, Hillary. 2019. “A Step Too Far: Matter of A-B-, ‘Particular Social Group,’ and Chevron.” Cornell Journal of Law and Public Policy 29: 345–404. https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3410556.Google Scholar
Li, Yao. 2020. “Persecution in International Criminal Law and International Refugee Law.” Zeitschrift für Internationale Strafrechtsdogmatik. June 2020. https://www.zis-online.com/dat/artikel/2020_6_1372.pdf.Google Scholar
Mayer, Elisabeth. 2000. “A ‘Benign’ ‘Apartheid’: How Gender ‘Apartheid’Has Been Rationalized.” UCLA Journal of International Law and Foreign Affairs 5 (2): 237–338.Google Scholar
McKanders, Karla M. 2019. “Gender, Islamophobia, and Refugee Exceptionalism.” In Arabs at Home and in the World, 1st edition, ed. McKanders, Karla. Routledge, UK. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781351263566CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Migrationsverket. 2022. “Being a Woman from Afghanistan is Enough to Get Protection.” Accessed July 24, 2023. https://www.migrationsverket.se/English/About-the-Migration-Agency/For-press/News-archive/News-archive-2022/2022-12-07-Being-a-woman-from-Afghanistan-is-enough-to-get-protection.html.Google Scholar
Musalo, Karen. 2021. “On the Wrong Answer to the Right Question: How to Address the Failure of Protection for Gender-Based Claims?” LexisNexis. March 9, 2021. https://www.lexisnexis.com/community/insights/legal/immigration/b/outsidenews/posts/prof-karen-musalo-on-the-wrong-answer-to-the-right-question-how-to-address-the-failure-of-protection-for-gender-based-claims.Google Scholar
Oosterveld, Valerie. 2006. “Gender, Persecution, and the International Criminal Court: Refugee Law’s Relevance to the Crime Against Humanity of Gender-Based Persecution.” Duke Journal of Comparative and International Law 17: 49–89. https://scholarship.law.duke.edu/djcil/vol17/iss1/2.Google Scholar
Oosterveld, Valerie. 2014. “Gender at the Intersection of International Refugee Law and International Criminal Law.” Journal of International Criminal Justice 12 (5): 953–74.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Qaane, Ehsan. 2023. “Gender Persecution in Afghanistan: Could it Come Under the ICC’s Afghanistan Investigation?” May 26, 2023. https://www.afghanistan-analysts.org/en/reports/rights-freedom/gender-persecution-in-afghanistan-could-it-come-under-the-iccs-afghanistan-investigation/.Google Scholar
Querton, Christel. 2022. “One Step Forward, Two Steps Back? Interpreting ‘Particular Social Group’ in the European Union.” International and Comparative Law Quarterly 71 (2): 425–451. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0020589322000021CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Qureshi, Shazia Naureen. 2014. “Understanding the Issue of Gender Discrimination as a ‘Crime’ of Gender Apartheid and Placing Violence against Women at the Centre of this Matrix.” South Asian Studies 29 (1): 91–101.Google Scholar
RAWA. (n.d.). “Policy of Teaching in RAWA Schools.” RAWA Educational Policy, 1997–2023. Accessed July 24, 2023. http://www.rawa.org/policy.htm.Google Scholar
RFI. 2023. “Calls for France to Recognize All Afghan Women and Girls as Refugees.” Afghan Refugees. September 5, 2023. https://www.rfi.fr/en/france/20230905-calls-for-france-to-recognise-all-afghan-women-and-girls-as-refugees.Google Scholar
Rikhof, Josef, and Geerts, Ashley. 2019. “Protected Groups in Refugee Law and International Law.” Laws 8 (4): 1–47. https://doi.org/10.3390/laws8040025CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sassòli, Marco, and Olson, Laura M.. 2000. “The Judgment of the ICTY Appeals Chamber on the Merits in the Tadic Case.” IRRC 82 (839): 733–69.Google Scholar
Sengupta, Ipshita. 2009. “Becoming a Refugee Woman: Gender-based Persecution and Women Asylum Seekers.” International Refugee Law. https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1649996Google Scholar
Shapiro, Michelle. 2022. “Revitalizing and Reforming International Asylum Law: A Proposal to Add Gender to the Refugee Definition.” Georgetown Immigration Law Journal 36 (2): 797–822.Google Scholar
Smith, Matthew. 2008. “The Relevance of the Work of the International Criminal Court to Refugee Status Determinations.” International Journal of Refugee Law 20 (1): 166–185.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stevenson, Ana. 2018. “The Gender-Apartheid Analogy in the Transnational Feminist Imaginary: Ms. Magazine and the Feminist Majority Foundation, 1972–2002.” Safundi 19 (1): 93–116. https://doi.org/10.1080/17533171.2018.1404752.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Swedish Government. 2005. Swedish Aliens Act. https://www.government.se/contentassets/784b3d7be3a54a0185f284bbb2683055/aliens-act-2005_716.pdf.Google Scholar
Tahirih Justice Center. 2021. “Countries with Asylum/Refugee Laws That Explicitly Protect Those Fleeing Gender-Based Persecution.” Accessed July 24, 2023. https://www.tahirih.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/Appendix-1-List-of-other-countries-with-gender-listed-in-asylum-laws.pdf.Google Scholar
UNHCR. 2002. “Guidelines on International Protection No. 1: Gender-Related Persecution Within the Context of Article 1A (2) of the 1951 Convention and/or Its 1967 Protocol Relating to the Status of Refugees.” HCR/GIP/02/01. Art 32. Accessed July 26, 2023. https://www.refworld.org/docid/3d36flc64htm.Google Scholar
UNHCR. 2023. “UNHCR Statement on the Concept of Persecution on Cumulative Grounds in Light of the Current Situation for Women and Girls in Afghanistan.” C-608/22 and C-609/22. May 25, 2023. https://www.refworld.org/docid/646f0e6a4.html.Google Scholar
United Nations Human Rights Office of the High Commissioner (OHCHR). 2023. “Taliban Edicts Suffocating Women and Girls in Afghanistan: UN Experts.” Press Release. June 19, 2023. https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2023/06/taliban-edicts-suffocating-women-and-girls-afghanistan-un-experts.Google Scholar
United Nations (UN) Sixth Committee. 2023. “Draft Articles on Prevention and Punishment of Crimes Against Humanity, Arranged by Thematic Clusters.” Crimes Against Humanity (Agenda item 78). April 10–14,2023. https://www.un.org/en/ga/sixth/77/pdfs/english/cah_draft_articles_clusters.pdf.Google Scholar
Andreas, Zimmermann, and Mahler, Claudia. 2011. ‘Article 1 A, para. 2: (Definition of the Term ‘Refugee’/Définition du Terme ‘Réfugié’)’, in Zimmermann, Andreas, Machts, Felix, and Dörschner, Jonas (eds), The 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees and its 1967 Protocol: A Commentary, Oxford Commentaries on International Law, Oxford Academic, https://doi.org/10.1093/actrade/9780199542512.003.0011.CrossRefGoogle Scholar