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Download paper Reproductive violence is a distinct form of sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) targeting reproductive autonomy, a right protected under international law. The impacts of reproductive violence can be as profound, damaging, and long-lasting as those accompanying other forms of violence and can compound the pain of other forms of SGBV. Yet recognition of reproductive violence as a distinct harm has been overlooked historically, including in international investigations of atrocities, conflict, humanitarian crises, or other instability. International investigations often play a key role in guiding international responses to crises, and the omission of reproductive violence can thus have significant ripple effects: victims may go un- or under-recognized; vital reproductive services may be absent from humanitarian responses; prevention efforts may fail to address the risks and inflammatory impacts of this violence; and justice, accountability, and reparations efforts may omit reproductive harms from consideration. This paper analyses the documentation of reproductive violence to date by UN-mandated fact-finding and other investigative mechanisms. To enhance documentation going forward, the paper also provides guidance on the international law governing reproductive harms. The guidance explains how international criminal, humanitarian, and human rights laws prohibit reproductive violence—including forced pregnancy, enforced sterilization, forced abortion, forced contraceptive use, restricting access to reproductive care, destroying essential reproductive healthcare infrastructure, and other forms of reproductive violence. Powered By EmbedPress

Download letter Dear Excellencies, We, the undersigned Afghanistan and international human rights and civil society organisations, write to you once again to share our concerns regarding the grave human rights and humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan and to reiterate the urgent need for accountability for gross, widespread and systematic human rights violations and abuses that continue to be committed across Afghanistan, including crimes under international law, some of which may amount to crimes against humanity. We call on the UN Human Rights Council, at its upcoming 57th regular session to: renew and strengthen with the necessary resources, the mandate of the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Afghanistan; establish a parallel and complementary independent mechanism to investigate, collect, consolidate, preserve and analyse evidence of human rights violations and abuses and crimes under international law; and ensure continuation of a dedicated space for enhanced interactive dialogue on the situation of women and girls in Afghanistan with meaningful follow-up to the report of the Special Rapporteur on Taliban’s repression against women and girls. We further urge you to seriously consider the calls for the recognition and codification of gender apartheid as a crime under international law. This letter, just as in our previous letter shared ahead of the 54th session of the Council in September 2023, is an outcome of consultations with Afghanistan’s civil society and human rights defenders located inside and outside of the country and enjoys broad support from Afghanistan’s civil society. In the past three years, the Taliban have completely reversed measures previously adopted to enhance the promotion and protection of human rights in Afghanistan. The Taliban, as the de facto authority, have spurned Afghanistan’s international obligations and have continued to introduce arbitrary, unlawful and wide-ranging restrictions on human rights. With bans on secondary and higher education, employment, freedom of movement, women’s faces and voices in public, and other rights and fundamental freedoms, as well as access to essential services, women and girls are being erased from society According to the report of the Special Rapporteur on Afghanistan, in the months between June 2023 and March 2024 alone, the de facto authorities issued over 52 new edicts that impose further restrictions the rights of women and girls, effectively consolidating an institutionalised system of gender persecution, which is a crime against humanity under the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court. According to the Special Rapporteur’s report and the Working Group on discrimination against women and girls, the situation of human rights in Afghanistan with respect to women and girls is tantamount to “an institutionalized framework of gender apartheid”. The UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) has documented 1033 instances of use of  force by the Ministry for the Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice (MPVPV) , with a view to implementing arbitrary and unlawful restrictions on the human rights of women and girls. Moreover, women and girls belonging to minority communities and LGBTQI+ people continue to experience multiple layers of discrimination. Marginalisation and exclusion of religious and ethnic minorities in Afghanistan has been compounded under the Taliban. Religious communities, including Shias, Ismailis, Sikhs and Hindus, are banned from organising or participating in their religious and cultural ceremonies. Amid the deepening humanitarian and economic crises, the Taliban’s restrictions on women’s right to work have obstructed the monitoring of aid deliveries, notably to women-headed households and groups in vulnerable situations. Additionally, threats against minorities, in particular ethnic minorities like Hazaras, are further exacerbated by targeted attacks by armed groups, such as Islamic State of Khurasan Province (ISKP) operating in the country. LGBTQI+ people face compounded exclusion as well, and face unlawful detention, extortion, torture and killing. All forms of dissent and criticism of the Taliban result in harsh, arbitrary punishment and violent reprisals. Peaceful protestors, in particular women who protest the Taliban’s policies, human rights defenders, civil society activists, journalists, artists, musicians, judges, lawyers, educators, critics, and others continue to be targeted. They have been threatened, arrested, and subjected to arbitrary detention and as well as torture and other ill-treatment. Former government and security officials have been subjected to extrajudicial, arbitrary, and summary killings as well as mass executions and enforced disappearances. The Taliban have also carried out cruel and inhumane punishments including public executions, flogging and other forms of corporal punishment. Afghanistan’s formerly independent legal and judicial systems have been replaced by a system that is based on the Taliban’s own arbitrary interpretation of religious edicts and rulings, and no longer function in a way that could protect the rights of the people of Afghanistan. As a joint statement by over 28 UN Special Procedure mandates on 14 August 2024 makes clear “avenues for justice within Taliban-controlled Afghanistan [are] virtually non-existent.” This situation is worsened by the fact that the Taliban have prohibited the Special Rapporteur on Afghanistan from accessing the country. The vast majority of crimes under international law and other serious human rights violations from the past, including summary killings and executions, tens of thousands of enforced disappearances, arbitrary detentions, torture and other ill-treatment by the former government, international forces, and armed groups who held power in parts of the country, remain unpunished. All of these violations have been committed with complete impunity, fuelling further cycles of violations and abuses. In this context, establishing a robust independent international investigative and accountability mechanism, with a mandate commensurate with the gravity and scale of the systematic and widespread violations and abuses of human rights, is necessary to advance justice and accountability in Afghanistan. The mechanism should have a mandate and sufficient financial and technical resources to adequately investigate, collect, consolidate, preserve and analyse evidence, with a view to facilitating future criminal proceedings in national and international courts. Such a mechanism should be designed to advance accountability for past and ongoing violations and abuses of human rights and crimes under international law, including those faced by women and girls and LGBTQI+ people across Afghanistan. Therefore, we call upon Member and Observer States of the U.N. Human Rights Council, in addition to renewing the crucial mandate of the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Afghanistan, to establish an independent international mechanism for Afghanistan with a mandate to: Investigate all allegations of past and ongoing violations and abuses of international human rights law and international humanitarian law, and international crimes, including the crimes against humanity of gender persecution; Collect, consolidate, and analyse evidence, and prepare files on past and ongoing violations and abuses of international human rights law and international humanitarian law, including crimes under international law, with due consideration of the gender, child and minority dimensions surrounding such violations and abuses; and systematically record and preserve all information, documentation and evidence, including specific crimes against women and girls, in a manner consistent with international law standards and in view of future legal proceedings and accountability efforts; Identify, where possible, the individuals and entities responsible with a view to ensuring they are held accountable; Be provided with sufficient financial and technical resources. The mechanism should be staffed with independent international experts, including those with expertise on: international human rights law, international humanitarian law and international criminal law; experts in armed conflict dynamics, with specific knowledge of command structures of armed forces and armed groups; sexual and other gender-based violence; children’s rights; the rights of people with disabilities; video and image verification; and forensic analysis; Cooperate with existing international judicial mechanisms, such as the International Criminal Court (ICC), that have a mandate over the situation in Afghanistan, as well as national courts; and, Make recommendations to UN entities and bodies, such as the UN Security Council and UN General Assembly, and to UN member states with a view to ending impunity and ensuring accountability, including on access to justice for victims. Such a mechanism would complement the mandate of the Special Rapporteur and complement and support the ongoing investigation by the ICC’s Office of the Prosecutor into the situation in Afghanistan. We believe that the establishment of an independent international accountability mechanism for Afghanistan would: Strengthen pathways to victim- and survivor-centred justice and accountability in Afghanistan; Ensure that serious human rights violations and abuses across the country, including sexual and gender-based crimes, are investigated; and Contribute to preventing the recurrence of human rights violations and abuses, and ending the vicious cycles of violence in the country. We, therefore, urge Member and Observer States of the Council to stand in solidarity with the people of Afghanistan, and ensure all victims, survivors, and their families have credible and realistic prospects of justice and accountability.

Download the full submission I. Introduction Over the years, parties to armed conflicts have systematically used sexual and reproductive violence against civilians to demoralize, terrorize, destroy, and even alter the ethnic compositions of entire communities. A large proportion of the victims of this violence, sometimes over 80%, are children. Stark examples include Rwanda, where nearly 250,000-500,000 women were raped in one hundred days as a part of the genocide in 1994, and an estimated 20,000 “enfants mauvais souvenirs” (children of bad memories) were born from these rapes. In Bosnia, women were held in rape camps, repeatedly raped until they became pregnant, and intentionally confined until it was too late for them to obtain an abortion. Boko Haram raped hundreds of women and girls and held them in sexual slavery. During one rescue of victims kidnapped by Boko Haram, at least 214 women and girls were found to be pregnant. More recently, the UN confirmed that Russian forces have committed numerous acts of rape and other sexual violence, with victims ranging from age four to eighty-years-old, which the UN said in some cases amounted to torture and war crimes. The UN has also documented armed gangs in Haiti using sexual violence to punish individuals associated with rival gangs, and to “assert power and control over people”. While most victims have been women and girls, men and boys have also been abused and subjected to violence. LGBTQ+ individuals have also suffered grave sexual violence in Haiti, with LBTQ+ women recounting incidents of “corrective rape” to “cure” them of “homosexuality.” Sexual violence in conflict settings can amount to torture and other cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment (CIDT) in violation of international human rights law (IHRL), international humanitarian law (IHL) and international criminal law (ICL). While all people in conflict settings have a right to protection from sexual violence and to reparations for such grave harm, all too often the compounded or independent reproductive harms individuals suffer go unrecognized and unremedied. For example, reproductive violence such as forced pregnancy, forced abortion, forced contraception and forced sterilization occurs regularly in conflict. Additionally, other reproductive rights violations such as lack of access to abortion, particularly when pregnancies are the result of rape, and to contraception and/or sexual and reproductive health (SRH) information and services to enable individuals to prevent unwanted pregnancies occur frequently in crisis contexts. Maternal mortality and morbidity rates are also disproportionately high in conflict settings due to inadequate living conditions and lack of access to prenatal and maternal health care.

The undersigned organizations and individuals — with representation from multiple geographic regions — express our support for a global convention on crimes against humanity, and urge states to utilize the 2024 April Resumed Session of the UN’s Sixth Committee to express strong support for a procedure to be adopted at the 79th Session of the UN General Assembly to move the Draft Articles on Prevention and Punishment of Crimes against Humanity forward to negotiations for a treaty. Throughout history, millions of people have been subjected to murder, extermination, enslavement, deportation, persecution, and other atrocities that have shocked the conscience of humanity. Crimes against humanity continue unabated across the globe and the Draft Articles provide a timely and urgent opportunity for states to help end impunity. Although crimes against humanity are among the most serious crimes in international law, there has yet to be a treaty regulating their prevention and punishment. A treaty on crimes against humanity would close a crucial gap in the current international framework on mass atrocities as well as clarifying states’ duties to prevent such crimes and means to cooperate with each other. A crimes against humanity treaty can also rightfully contribute to global affirmation of the gravity of these crimes. In 2013, the UN’s International Law Commission approved crimes against humanity to be included in its programme of work. The Commission, in 2019, recommended the elaboration of a convention by the UN General Assembly or by an international conference.  In 2022, the UN’s Sixth Committee adopted resolution 77/249 to take forward steps for a treaty on crimes against humanity, including two interactive sessions in 2023 and 2024 on the Draft Articles, and a plan to take a decision on the ILC’s recommendation that a treaty go forward in the 79th session of the General Assembly. We believe the International Law Commission’s Draft Articles represent a strong starting point to open negotiations on a treaty. There is broad agreement that the Draft Articles contain a number of positive elements, and differences in perspectives on the existing Draft Articles should not be used to perpetuate inaction. Accordingly, we urge states to follow the Commission’s recommendation that a treaty on crimes against humanity should be negotiated, either by the General Assembly itself or in a Diplomatic Conference convened for that purpose. Our organizations also urge states at the April resumed session to identify important areas for further strengthening the Draft Articles. A variety of civil society groups have developed proposals toward this end. These include strengthening the proposed treaty by a variety of means. We urge states at the April resumed session also to express overall support for an approach to the development of a crimes against humanity treaty that is gender-competent, survivor-centric, and deploys an intersectional lens. This includes ensuring the inclusion of a non-discrimination provision to apply and interpret the treaty’s provisions consistent with international human rights law. We believe it is equally essential that the treaty-making process itself is inclusive. States should facilitate meaningful, inclusive, and safe public and civil society participation from across the region, in all stages of the treaty-development process, including by people of all gender identities, as well as victims, survivors, and affected communities, and ensure that their voices are adequately represented in the final provisions of the treaty. A full list of signatories can be found here.

Gender-discriminatory laws and policies, and impunity for sexual and gender-based crimes, have long been the norm in Myanmar. Since independence in 1948, successive military regimes have perpetuated systemic discrimination based on gender, sexual orientation, and gender identity. The 2021 military coup greatly exacerbated gender-based discrimination and violence against women and people with diverse gender identities, and put an immediate end to any attempts to reform or eliminate these structural barriers to equality.

Overview: States should adopt a survivor-centric approach to the Draft Crimes Against Humanity Convention States must take a survivor-centric approach throughout when considering the Draft Articles on the Prevention and Punishment of Crimes Against Humanity (the “Draft Crimes Against Humanity Convention”). This is an essential approach in relation to all victims and survivors of crimes against humanity, particularly those who may face ongoing marginalization or risks, such as survivors of sexual violence and other gendered harms. A survivor-centric approach recognizes that victims and survivors of crimes against humanity will have suffered immense harm and trauma. It aims to put the rights and agency of each victim and survivor at the forefront of all actions and ensures that they are treated with dignity and respect and supported to make informed decisions with regards to accessing protection, support, justice, and remedy based on their own needs and priorities. Such an approach also requires states to keep at the forefront of their minds how the text of the treaty will actually affect victims and survivors, including consideration of how victims and survivors will be able to meaningfully and effectively access their rights through the treaty’s provisions and the institutions implementing them. It emphasizes that seeking justice is a right, not just a privilege, for victims and survivors. A survivor-centric approach thus requires states to ensure that victims’ and survivors’ rights are robustly protected and set out throughout the Draft Crimes Against Humanity Convention. International criminal law and international human rights law provide that victims and survivors have rights to: (i) effective protection; (ii) effective support; (iii) notice of their rights; (iv) timely notice of developments during proceedings, including those related to justice and remedy; (v) participate in criminal and other relevant legal proceedings; (vi) have legal representation during criminal and other relevant legal proceedings; (vii) obtain full and effective reparation; and (viii) have reparation awards enforced. Such an approach also requires that states ensure that all provisions related to protection, assistance, remedy, and reparations for victims and survivors respect and strengthen their autonomy and are provided irrespective of survivors’ ability or willingness to cooperate in legal proceedings against the alleged perpetrator. In line with the human rights law principle that requires all people to be involved in decision-making that affects them, a survivor-centric approach also requires states to meaningfully engage victims and survivors in treaty development, adoption, implementation and monitoring processes, participating in decisions that impact them, and ensuring that victims’ and survivors’ voices are adequately represented in the final provisions of the treaty. States must understand victims and survivors’ priorities at each stage of the process. For example, in other forums, victims and survivors have identified justice and accountability as a key priority, including by strengthening the ability of international and domestic justice systems to deliver justice for gender-based crimes. As victims and survivors are not a homogeneous group, when taking a survivor-centric approach, states must give particular consideration to ensuring the substantive equality of victims and survivors who are subjected to marginalization and discrimination, including intersectional discrimination. This brief first sets out the importance and potential avenues of state action to ensure robust, meaningful, and effective participation of victims and survivors in discussions and decision-making in relation to the Draft Crimes Against Humanity Convention (Section I). It then highlights specific ways in which the provisions of the Draft Crimes Against Humanity Convention should be strengthened to reflect international human rights law and standards in line with a survivor-centric approach, namely by: adopting a broad and unambiguous definition of ‘victim’ in the treaty that ensures all individuals harmed by crimes against humanity are included (Section II); and expanding the treaty’s reparations provisions (in present Draft Article 12(3)) to ensure all relevant victims and survivors have access to prompt, full, and effective reparations (Section III). It concludes with a non-exhaustive list of additional examples for consideration that states should include in discussions on the recognition and rights of victims and survivors (Section IV).

We, the undersigned individuals and organizations, are writing regarding the Draft Articles on Prevention and Punishment of Crimes Against Humanity, currently under your consideration. We applaud the Sixth Committee’s leadership on and engagement with the draft articles. April’s resumed session discussion was an indisputable advance. Progress is being made to form the basis for actual negotiations of a new crimes against humanity convention that would have significant potential to advance protection for civilian populations at risk as well as justice for gender-based crimes.

It is imperative that the 2019 Draft articles on Prevention and Punishment of Crimes Against Humanity (the “Draft Crimes Against Humanity Convention”) protect the value of “reproductive autonomy,” meaning the right of every individual to exercise agency over their fertility; their choice about whether, and in what circumstances, to reproduce.

Under the crimes against humanity category of ‘other inhumane acts’, acts of forced marriage have been successfully prosecuted at the Special Court for Sierra Leone (SCSL), the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC), and the International Criminal Court (ICC). In those cases, forced marriage was classified under the category of ‘other inhumane acts’ because it was not explicitly listed in the statutes of any of those tribunals. The drafting of the Crimes Against Humanity Convention represents an ideal opportunity to rectify this oversight and explicitly recognize forced marriage as a standalone prohibited act.