International Human Rights Clinic law students, with University of Michigan Law, convened experts September 18, 2025, to strategize the codification and application of gender apartheid, an emerging international legal norm.
The gender apartheid framework is about developing a more effective response to what the German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock has called, “the biggest violation of women’s rights on Earth,” which is the situation of Afghan women and girls under draconian Taliban rule, as well as other situations of de jure subjugation of women, such as in Iran.
The event’s featured speakers included Afghan Women Human Rights Defenders, UN Special Rapporteur on Afghanistan Richard Bennett and members from the UN Committee on Elimination of Discrimination Against Women and Working Group on Discrimination Against Women and Girls.
Clinic students rapporteured closed session workshop meetings on a draft soft law declaration in addition to rapporteuring the public sessions:
- Panel 1: The Global Fight to End Gender Apartheid: An Essential Human Rights Struggle
- Panel 2: A Vital Alliance – International Lawyers and Frontline Women Human Rights Defenders in the Fight Against Gender Apartheid
- Panel 3: International Legal Strategies for Countering Gender Apartheid in a Fraught Global Moment
