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What we Do

The Institute of Gender, Law, and International Justice (IGLIJ) advances legal accountability for gender-based crimes under international law, with a particular focus on the recognition of gender apartheid as a crime against humanity. Through rigorous legal analysis and strategic advocacy, the Institute supports accountability initiatives and contributes to the development of international criminal law.

Core Legal Pillars

Our work is structured across three interelated legal pillars, bridging doctrine, policy, and practice. 

Legal Accountability & Strategic Litigation

  • Drafting a precise legal definition of gender apartheid
  • Elements of crimes analysis under international criminal law
  • Comparative jurisprudence and expert legal consultation
  • Drafting a precise legal definition of gender apartheid
  • Elements of crimes analysis under international criminal law

Research & Norm Development

  • Legal pathways for prosecution at international and domestic levels
  • Strategic legal interventions and submissions
  • Integration of gender apartheid into accountability frameworks
  • Legal pathways for prosecution at international and domestic levels
  • Strategic legal interventions and submissions

Programs & Institutional Engagement

  • Research dissemination and public legal education
  • Global dialogue with institutions and practitioners
  • Bridging academic inquiry and practical advocacy
  • Research dissemination and public legal education
  • Global dialogue with institutions and practitioners

Our Convenings & Engagements

Selected moments from Institute-led and Institute-participating public forums on gender justice and international law.

FLAGSHIP RESEARCH INITIATIVE

The Legal Definition Project

The Institute’s flagship initiative to articulate a precise, prosecutable definition of gender apartheid under international tinerntional criminal law.

Includes

  • Draft legal definitions
  • Elements of crimes analysis
  • Comparative jurisprudence
  • Submissions to international courts and treaty processes

Latest News & Opinion Editorials

Select commentaries, analyses and interventions published on matters of gender apartheid and international justice.

The Institute files first Article 15 Communication to the otp: Gender Aparthed As A crime Against Humanity

In 1998, the Rome Statute codified rape, sexual slavery, and forced pregnancy as crimes against humanity, making strides in international criminal law’s treatment of crimes against women. Yet more than two decades later, the Statute remains silent on an emergent system of oppression: from Afghanistan to Iran, governments are not merely discriminating against women, they are governing through a systematic and institutionalised regime of gender-based domination. This regime—where state law and bureaucratic infrastructure are weaponised to exclude women from education, employment, public life, and bodily autonomy—is not incidental. It is deliberate, structural, and enduring. This is gender apartheid: an institutionalised regime of systematic oppression and domination by one gender over another.

From Persecution to Apartheid: The ICC's Next Legal Frontier for Women's Rights

CAMBRIDGE INTERNATIONAL LAW JOURNAL

Asana Soltan examines the ICC’s role in addressing gender apartheid, focusing on recent developments in Afghanistan

Systemic Oppression: Weaponized Bureaucracy in Gender Apartheid

Amira Hassanradeh analyes how state bureaucratic structures on used to sustain gender apartheid regimes across the Middle East.a

The Power Dynamics of Gender Apartheid in Afghan

In 1999, the Rome Statute codifuner, sexual slavery

Gender Persecution in Iran: The Rome Statute's Legal Gaps

Aurihatinisfand epapus, bureugras ontlos cratioring ahcape, 

UN Special Rapporteur Condemns Gender Apartheid

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Explore

Our Expert

Meet scholars and practitioners contributing to the Institute’s work.

Our Publications

Explore legal submissions policy reports and academic scholarship.

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