Response to interpellation 2023/24:772 on gender apartheid
Translated from Swedish by AI; the translation may contain errors. The Swedish text is the original.
Summary AI, written in advance
1 M argues that gender apartheid lacks an internationally accepted definition and can therefore not be classified as a crime against humanity in Afghanistan 1. M emphasizes that Sweden is working towards an intergovernmental convention on crimes against humanity and supports the ICC's work in prosecuting individuals for persecution based on gender 1 2. M argues that there is a lack of majority support in the UN to recognize gender apartheid as a specific crime 3. M believes that the conditions for protecting women's rights do not diminish if a few words are removed 3 and that the concept of "feminist foreign policy" risks obscuring important values 3. 4 S wants Sweden to urge the UN to include gender apartheid in an upcoming convention 4. 5 S regrets that Sweden has abandoned the feminist foreign policy and thus lost a network for women's rights 5.
Written by AI in advance and may contain errors. The numbers lead to the speech a statement builds on; check against the text below.
Utrikesministern Maria Malmer Stenergard (M)
Madam Speaker! Alexandra Völker has asked my representative Tobias Billström whether the government intends to take any initiatives so that the UN recognizes gender apartheid as a crime against humanity, and whether he intends to take any initiatives so that the international community classifies what is happening in Afghanistan as gender apartheid. As Minister for Foreign Affairs, I will answer the interpellation.
I want to begin by emphasizing that the government views the situation in Afghanistan very seriously. Sweden has consistently condemned the Taliban's actions. The situation for women and girls in Afghanistan is particularly grave. Just as Alexandra Völker points out, women and girls have been deprived of a number of human rights through legislation.
As Alexandra Völker points out, gender apartheid is currently not recognized as a crime against humanity. There is also no internationally accepted definition of the term. Therefore, it is not possible to classify what is happening in Afghanistan as gender apartheid.
Unlike the international crime of genocide, there is also no intergovernmental convention on crimes against humanity. Sweden is actively working for such a convention to be adopted, and discussions are ongoing in the UN regarding initiating negotiations on exactly this. A convention on crimes against humanity would, among other things, contribute to harmonizing states' national legislation and improving the possibilities for intergovernmental cooperation to prevent and punish these horrific crimes.
However, there is already today in the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, ICC, a possibility to prosecute individuals who have committed crimes against humanity through persecution based on gender. The ICC prosecutor has, in this context, developed a new policy to improve accountability regarding gender-related crimes in the Rome Statute. It is a task that Sweden has supported.
Alexandra Völker (S)
Madam Speaker! I too would like to begin by congratulating Maria Malmer Stenergard on becoming the new Minister for Foreign Affairs. It is an incredibly important role, and we Social Democrats look forward to following your work closely.
Madam Speaker! For her struggle against oppression in Iran and for human rights and freedom for all, Narges Mohammadi was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize last year. Her struggle has come at an incredibly high price, and she has been imprisoned for several years in the notorious Evin Prison in Iran.
At the beginning of this year, she wrote a letter to the UN regarding the need to recognize gender apartheid as a crime against humanity. In her letter, she highlights point by point examples of how Iran, through its legislation, actively discriminates against women—how they are deprived of their rights and allowed to be subjected to crimes.
A woman needs to obtain approval from her father if she is unmarried and from her husband if she is married in order to be granted a passport. A man's testimony counts as much as two women's. Men in Iran are allowed to have up to four wives at the same time, even more if they are temporary ones, while the punishment for a woman who has a relationship with someone outside of marriage is execution. Marital rape is not considered a crime, while Iranian men can file official complaints if their wives are unwilling to participate in sexual activities.
These are just some of the 24 examples that Narges Mohammadi highlights in her letter on how oppression of women has been institutionalized through the law, the authorities, and the regime's behavior. This is the case in Iran and also in Afghanistan.
Narges Mohammadi is not alone in pleading for gender apartheid to be recognized by the UN as a crime against humanity. Several experts within the UN have also pleaded for exactly the same thing. They have pleaded for the UN's member states to act.
The Minister for Foreign Affairs points out in his answer that Sweden is acting so that an intergovernmental convention on crimes against humanity is adopted. That is good. But can we assume that the government is also working to ensure that gender apartheid becomes part of that convention?
In October, the UN's Sixth Committee will resume its discussions on the draft of a convention. This gives us a very time-sensitive opportunity to urge the committee to include gender apartheid in the draft. Is this something Sweden will do?
Utrikesministern Maria Malmer Stenergard (M)
Madam Speaker! Thank you, Member, for the congratulations!
The concept of gender apartheid was used during the Taliban's time in power in the 90s to describe the situation for women and girls in Afghanistan. Since the Taliban's retaking of power in 2021, among others, the UN working group on discrimination against women and girls and the special rapporteur for the human rights situation in Afghanistan have urged the international community to consider whether gender apartheid should be recognized and codified as an international crime.
The definitions of apartheid in the Rome Statute do not include oppression based on gender. Gender apartheid has thus not been codified as a crime in international criminal law and lacks a formally and internationally accepted legal definition. However, there is already today in the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, ICC, a possibility to prosecute individuals who have committed crimes against humanity through persecution on the basis of gender.
Sweden has over the years provided strong support to the prosecutor's office's work in developing the tools in this area. Proponents of including gender apartheid as a specific crime against humanity argue that it would become easier to tackle systematic oppression, such as that which the Taliban carry out against women and girls in Afghanistan. At the same time, critics argue that the concept of apartheid should remain limited to dealing with race-based oppression and that the acts committed by the Taliban in Afghanistan should instead be prosecuted as persecution based on gender.
The debate is important, and it is far from over. Sweden is following this development very closely.
Alexandra Völker (S)
Madam Speaker! Thank you, Minister for Foreign Affairs, for the answer!
Just as the Foreign Minister himself, the reported UN Special Rapporteur Richard Bennet raised in his report this summer, where he raises this issue and the need to see this as gender apartheid because there is no more accurate description. He raises how this should be part of a convention on crimes against humanity and also how a definition could read. He also raises examples of how one could change the Rome Statute and points out that this could also be relevant.
His report has been received extremely well by organizations and groups fighting for women's rights in Afghanistan precisely because for many it represents a recognition of what they themselves have fought for over a long period and highlighted the need for. It is also, as mentioned, a rather long row of both experts and prominent human rights defenders as well as former foreign ministers in the USA and so on who have raised the need for the UN to recognize gender apartheid and include it in a convention on crimes against humanity.
In his response to my interpellation, the Minister for Foreign Affairs raises the issue of the Rome Statute. I can only agree that the international judges play an incredibly important role. In this interpellation, I chose to focus on the UN, but as we were just touching upon, it is clear that the Rome Statute absolutely becomes relevant. I think there may be reason for me to return to this in more interpellations, but today I chose to focus on the UN.
I cannot help but wonder that the Minister for Foreign Affairs chooses to highlight precisely the International Criminal Court in his response. The government's and the Minister for Foreign Affairs' view on the international courts does, in fact, raise a number of questions.
When the Foreign Minister took office, she did not want to answer whether Israel's actions in Gaza are proportionate; it was a question for the courts. But when the UN General Assembly on Thursday voted on a resolution that Israel should follow the ruling from the International Court of Justice in The Hague and cease the occupation of Palestinian land, the government instead chooses, unlike for example France, Norway, Iceland, Finland, Estonia and Latvia, to abstain from voting. It is a very regrettable result that it is now the rule rather than the exception that Sweden abstains from voting in the UN when it concerns Israel and Palestine.
Time and again we now see examples of how the government refers to the international courts but then does not act following their rulings. So when the minister, in his response to my interpellation, mentions precisely the International Criminal Court, I cannot help but wonder how important the Foreign Minister and the government actually consider the rulings in the international courts to be, given that you in the UN continuously cast your vote in resolutions calling for them to be followed?
Utrikesministern Maria Malmer Stenergard (M)
Madam Speaker! Crimes against humanity through persecution on the basis of gender is one of the least noticed crimes in international criminal law. The Rome Statute is the first international criminal statute that recognizes persecution on the basis of gender, and this is the result of a successful effort to include various forms of sexual and gender-based crimes in the statute.
Internationally, initiatives have been taken aimed at improving the prosecution of gender-based crimes, and Sweden has consistently supported these initiatives. During 2022 and 2023, the ICC's Office of the Prosecutor introduced new guidelines on persecution based on gender and other gender-based crimes, and this is work that Sweden has also supported. The guidelines emphasize that, for the most part, all crimes in the Rome Statute can involve different forms of sexual or gender-based violence.
Sweden is a strong supporter of the ICC, and the ongoing investigation is an important opportunity to achieve accountability for the Taliban's abuses in Afghanistan. Those who claim to represent the state of Afghanistan thus undertake the responsibility to fulfill the obligations resulting from the international agreements that Afghanistan has actually ratified, not least the UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women.
The government has consistently condemned the Taliban's actions against women and girls' enjoyment of human rights. It is of high priority for the government to contribute to the accountability of the perpetrators. The discussion on gender apartheid contributes, I believe, to highlighting the overall need to prosecute gender-based crimes to a greater extent.
For the government and for me, the international courts are of the highest importance. They are incredibly important for upholding the rules-based world order. Regarding the resolution that Alexandra Völker is asking about, it is rather that it does not follow the ICJ's ruling but goes beyond it. This was the reason why we, together with among others the social democrat-led government in Denmark and also Germany, the Netherlands, Austria and the United Kingdom, chose to abstain. But the court's judgment is important.
Alexandra Völker (S)
Madam Speaker! I must begin by thanking the Minister for Foreign Affairs for this first debate. We will have reason to return to the question of the systematic and institutionalized oppression that women and children, in particular, are subjected to in Afghanistan and in Iran. We will have to return to the question of gender apartheid and also generally to how we can support the women in Afghanistan and in Iran.
As the Foreign Minister is well aware, there is also an announcement from this Riksdag regarding the blacklisting of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard in Iran. It is definitely something that we will have to return to.
Madam Speaker! When the Social Democratic-led government established a feminist foreign policy at the change of government in 2014, a movement started among the world's governments and foreign ministers. After this, a large number of countries came to follow in Sweden's footsteps. This has created a network of foreign ministers all around the world where they are specifically working for a feminist foreign policy. It is a network where one can push issues forward when it comes to specifically women's rights - a network that Sweden unfortunately no longer belongs to, since we have left the feminist foreign policy behind, which we Social Democrats regret.
I can state that the very question of gender apartheid and the possibilities of pursuing this as part of the convention is something that Sweden could have used such a network for. I can therefore only once again regret that Sweden has chosen to leave feminist foreign policy. One has chosen to no longer be a part of that family and thus also waived an opportunity to, together with other countries with a common strong voice, pursue a strong foreign policy for women's rights.
Utrikesministern Maria Malmer Stenergard (M)
Madam Speaker! Equality is a core value in Swedish foreign policy. Everyone shall have an equal right to enjoy human rights, regardless of gender, age, sexual orientation or religion.
There has been an ongoing discussion within the UN for some time about initiating negotiations on an interstate convention on crimes against humanity, something that is currently lacking. Sweden is actively working for a convention to begin being negotiated and eventually also be adopted. Including gender apartheid as a specific crime in the convention has sparked interest among certain states. Which crimes will be included in a future convention will be subject to negotiations. We are therefore working right now for convention negotiations to be initiated in the first place.
This debate is important. However, to continue the development of the international legal framework, a broad consensus between countries is required, and there is currently no majority support among the UN's member states for the recognition of gender apartheid as an international crime. Should the conditions exist in the future within international criminal law, Sweden intends to be an important part of the discussion on this.
The conditions for conducting a foreign policy that in every instance emphasizes the importance of protecting women's rights are not diminished in the slightest by removing a few words. Rather, I believe that the concept of "feminist foreign policy" risks obscuring all the important values that characterize our foreign policy.
Source: The Swedish Parliament. The speeches come from the open data of the Riksdag, translated into English by AI, which may contain errors.