Human Rights Day Report Calls for International Response to Gender-Based Crimes Against Humanity
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NEW YORK, NY – The Human Rights and Gender Justice Clinic at CUNY School of Law, in collaboration with MADRE, today released “Gender Persecution in Ukraine,” an analysis of gender persecution as a crime against humanity in Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Published on International Human Rights Day, this report documents patterns of alleged rights violations that constitute crimes against humanity under international criminal law.
Through extensive interviews with Ukrainian gender violence responders and prosecutors, the report points to a significant gap between the number of cases officially documented by United Nations monitors and Ukraine’s General Prosecutor’s Office and the actual scope of gender-based crimes, including conflict-related sexual violence and violence targeting LGBTQI+ people. While hundreds of cases have been recorded, evidence suggests that these figures represent only a fraction of the true number of victims.
The report describes how Russian leadership’s explicit framing of the invasion through discriminatory gender rhetoric has translated into systematic violence based on gender. The evidence reveals patterns of abuse that warrant investigation as crimes against humanity, including gender persecution.
Key findings from the report include:
- The majority of documented cases occurred in detention facilities, revealing systematic use of gender-based violence against detainees.
- Russian forces have explicitly targeted individuals based on gender identity and sexual orientation, concurrent with Russia’s anti-LGBTIQ+ laws.
- Survivors in occupied territories face compound barriers to justice and services including lack of access to investigators trained in gender violence, fear of retribution, and systematic stigma.
- Documentation efforts are severely constrained by investigators’ inability to access occupied territories and to reach displaced survivors abroad.
The report’s release coincides with recently passed legislation in Ukraine’s parliament, set to go into force in the first half of 2025, which if effectively implemented, would establish a reparations system for survivors and codify conflict-related sexual violence as a crime. The report provides detailed recommendations for Ukrainian authorities, international donors, and humanitarian organizations to strengthen accountability mechanisms for gender-based crimes.
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The City University of New York School of Law is the nation’s leading public interest law school and ranked highest in diversity of students and faculty. CUNY Law has a dual mission: to recruit and train outstanding public interest lawyers and to diversify the legal profession so that it includes and reflects people and communities needed to transform justice.
The Human Rights and Gender Justice Clinic at CUNY Law focuses on international criminal law and human rights law, conflict and war, sexual and gender-based violence, anti-trafficking work, reproductive rights, LGBTIQ+ rights, economic and social rights, and children’s rights. Widely recognized for its expertise and contributions to gender jurisprudence and human rights practice, the Clinic advocates before international and regional human rights bodies and national and local courts and legal institutions.
MADRE is an international women’s human rights organization that partners with community-based women’s groups worldwide to address issues of health and reproductive rights, economic development, education, and other human rights.