ORAL STATEMENT
Humanists International
63rd Session of the United Nations Human Rights Council (7 September to 9 October 2026)
Item 2: Interactive Dialogue with the Special Rapporteur on Afghanistan
Speaker: Mythili Mishra
Co-sponsored by: Right to Learn, Muslims for Progressive Values, Feminist Majority Foundation
Thank you, Mr President, and we thank the Special Rapporteur for this important report.
I make this statement on behalf of Humanists International and the organizations co-sponsoring it, all of them endorsers of the Declaration on Gender Apartheid and Its Destructive Consequences, launched in August. The Declaration is also endorsed by Afghan-led organizations, including AISS and WCRAN.[1]
In this vein, we welcome the Special Rapporteur’s reiteration of his recommendation to codify gender apartheid as a crime against humanity.[2] That call has also been made by the UN Secretary-General and the High Commissioner,[3] and by international legal and human rights experts from around the world who issued the Declaration.
In Afghanistan, we see religion and culture instrumentalized by the Taliban to justify the legal framework for gender apartheid, such as the Law on the Prevention of Virtue and Vice[4] and the recently enacted Code on Judicial Separation of Spouses.[5] Such legal changes have validated child marriage and violence against women under a high threshold,[6] as well as creating nearly insurmountable barriers to divorce for women.[7] These laws and the proffered justifications for them all violate international law.
Additionally, the Declaration calls for the presumption of refugee status to be applied to women and girls fleeing gender apartheid.[8] This is notable as we see States engaging with the de facto authorities in Afghanistan to facilitate deportations.[9] We thank the Special Rapporteur for reminding States that they must comply with the non-derogable principle of non-refoulement.[10]
We ask the Special Rapporteur, what must be done for the international community to heed the calls contained in the Declaration, including to codify gender apartheid as a crime against humanity?
Thank you.
[1] The Declaration, its signatories and the list of endorsing organisations are available at https://www.genderapartheiddeclaration.org/international-declaration-on-gender-apartheid-and-its-destructive-consequences/.
[2] Report of the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Afghanistan, A/HRC/63/22 (28 August 2026), paras. 81, 83(j)
[3] Report of the Secretary-General, E/CN.6/2026/3, para. 35. See also Volker Türk, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Gender parity is a human right, 25 October 2024, https://www.ohchr.org/en/statements-and-speeches/2024/10/gender-parity-human-right.
[4] Law on the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice, published in the official gazette on 21 August 2024. See A/HRC/58/74, Study on the so-called Law on the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice
[5] Decree No. 18, Code on Judicial Separation of Spouses, issued by the de facto Ministry of Justice in April 2026 and published in the official gazette on 14 May 2026. See A/HRC/63/22, Annex, para. 1, referring to the 2026 decree on separation of spouses; and OHCHR, Afghanistan: Taliban decree on separation of spouses further erodes rights of women and girls, warn UN experts, 18 June 2026, https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2026/06/afghanistan-taliban-decree-separation-spouses-further-erodes-rights-women.
[6] A/HRC/63/22, para 22
[7] UNAMA, statement on Decree No. 18, May 2026, noting that men retain a unilateral right to divorce while women must navigate complex and restrictive judicial procedures to obtain a separation. https://unama.unmissions.org/en/news/unama-statement-on-afghanistans-de-facto-authorities-decree-no-18-code-on-judicial
[8] The Declaration, para 9.
[9] e.g. The charter deportation flights from Germany to Kabul during 2026, arranged through technical contacts with the de facto authorities and accompanied by the acceptance of additional Taliban-appointed consular staff in Berlin and Bonn, and the technical meeting between the European Union and a Taliban delegation in Brussels in June 2026 on return and readmission.
[10] A/HRC/63/22, paras. 41, 83(e).
'Gender Apartheid in Afghanistan', Humanists International