The Observatory compiles incidences that may amount to crimes against humanity of persecution based on gender from conflict and other crises from across the globe.
The Observatory’s documentation datasets are organized by country. Each country page features selected examples of crimes that may amount to gender persecution. Each entry summarizes the incident that took place and lists the corresponding fundamental rights that may have been violated in connection with the act or conduct.
Element one of gender persecution under the Rome Statute requires a severe deprivation of fundamental rights. To reach the “severity” threshold, fundamental rights are assessed cumulatively. For this reason, the Observatory identifies the multiple fundamental rights that may have been violated as part of the gender persecution act. It includes an interactive section that allows users to see the interplay between crimes and fundamental rights deprivations.
Sources for the Observatory include publicly available sources such as reports and media sources, as well as from frontline defenders collecting information in their communities. All acts and conduct compiled in this Observatory have been documented or alleged by their sources, but have not been proven in a court of law. All incidents have been anonymized, with victim-identifying information removed. Gender Persecution patterns are then analyzed by legal advisors and compiled into briefings, report or legal submissions.
Experts Workshops
We convene international law experts, gender justice experts and grassroots activists with conflict expertise to respond to unfolding crises and developments in international law that are relevant to gender persecution survivors and building sustainable peace. Experts work together to develop both rapid responses and long-term legal strategies.
Expert Testimony and Capacity Bridging
We provide expert testimony, technical assistance and capacity bridging to justice mechanisms and peace processes, such as tribunals, treaty bodies, truth and reconciliation processes and other restorative or reparative justice mechanisms regarding gender persecution, including harms occurring alongside multiple forms of persecution.
Academic delegations
We organize academic and expert delegations to conflict-affected countries where we are engaged in efforts to enhance legal and social change from a ground-up, community-based approach. Delegations provide experts, academics and students opportunities to engage in capacity bridging and exchanges on best practices, and to partner with local community-based organizations, justice actors and policy makers. Previous delegations have traveled to Iraq, Jordan, Turkey, Lebanon, Colombia, Guatemala, Nicaragua, and Haiti as well as to Geneva and the Hague.
Consider a girl tortured by an armed group for violating dress codes or a woman who is killed because she held a professional job considered inappropriate for women. A man thrown off a building to his death for being real or perceived as gay. Lesbians issued a death warrant for being caught kissing. Trans persons killed for living as their true selves. These abuses, committed by armed actors, are not often held accountable. While we recognize the torture and murder in these egregious crimes, we do not acknowledge the discriminatory intent behind these crimes. In other words, we often miss why these crimes were committed. Such recognition would demonstrate to the world that targeting women, girls, LGBTQ+ persons, because of their gender is a crime against humanity.
Failure to understand the discriminatory intentions that motivate perpetrators to rape, enslave, torture or execute civilians does little to guarantee its non-repetition. It is not enough to hold perpetrators accountable for crimes that take place during atrocities. Justice also requires an understanding of how perpetrators justify such acts—if justice is to root out discrimination and break cycles of violence. The recognition of gender, in addition to racial, ethnic, and other forms of discrimination as drivers for conflict-related crimes calls for the participation of those most impacted by discrimination in peace and transitional justice processes, which are designed to ensure atrocities do not repeat. Now is the time to dust off the law books on the crime of gender persecution and bring justice to a more inclusive group of survivors and victims who have never in history received full recognition.
Part of the problem lies with the relative lack of conceptualization of the term “gender” under international criminal law. The failure to recognize a broad swath of gender-based crimes derives in part from the lack of understanding of what gender-based persecutory acts look like during atrocities, apart from sexual violence. Most of the gender-related case law from international criminal tribunals since 1993 has focused on sexual violence, which offers some clarity as to how these acts may fall within the crime of gender persecution.
Activists in the 1990s were formidable in their work to deepen the understanding of what might constitute a sexual violence crime, making the Rome Statute pioneering for its time. It was the first treaty to explicitly proscribe the crimes of rape, forced pregnancy, enforced prostitution, and enforced sterilization, as both war crimes and crimes against humanity under the same instrument. However, the case law is still quite underdeveloped regarding other gender-based crimes that may amount to gender persecution and lay beyond the scope of sexual violence. As the discourse on gender-based crimes continues to evolve, scholars and legal experts have begun to shift the discussion from exploring gender persecution in theory to imagining its application in practice.
The crime against humanity of gender persecution is the intentional and severe deprivation of fundamental rights contrary to international law by reason of the identity of the group or collectivity. Crimes like murder, torture, sexual violence, crimes against children and other inhumane acts are themselves severe deprivations of fundamental rights. This means the threshold test for severe deprivation is met when the underlying act is a crime. However, such acts also often cause and enforce other fundamental rights violations. Prosecutors can and should highlight all fundamental rights violations (in addition to the underlying act) that a perpetrator intentionally causes when committing a crime, as they may amount to acts of gender persecution. Doing so also helps tell amore complete story of a perpetrator’s intentions and victims’ experiences. In this sense, persecution charges bridge international human rights law and international criminal law, allowing for recognition of human rights violations as elements of criminal acts.
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