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www.genderpersecutionobservatory.org
Gender-based violence has been committed in conflict as long as wars have been fought, but perpetrators are almost never held accountable.
Human rights defenders around the world are working to end gender persecution, the systematic violations of fundamental rights on the basis of gender. Today, CUNY Law’s Human Rights and Gender Justice Clinic and the Institute on Gender, Law, and Transformative Peace are supporting the launch of a new tool to bolster these defenders’ efforts. The new Gender Persecution Observatory is a web-based research hub providing real-time information about gender persecution in conflict.
The Observatory, chaired by CUNY Law Professor and alum Lisa Davis, launches with detailed case data of violence against women, girls, and LGBTIQ+ people in wars in Afghanistan, Ukraine, Colombia, and Iraq. It also contains detailed conflict analyses on gender persecution in wars spanning more than a dozen countries as far back as World War II. In the future, it will be continually expanded by legal experts and frontline groups.
“This groundbreaking resource from our Human Rights and Gender Justice Clinic and the Institute on Gender, Law, and Transformative Peace exemplifies CUNY Law’s commitment to cutting-edge social justice work,” says Dean Sudha Setty. “The Gender Persecution Observatory will be an invaluable tool for human rights defenders worldwide and provides new learning opportunities for our students, reinforcing our position at the forefront of legal education and international human rights advocacy.”
The Gender Persecution Observatory launches at a turning point for how the world treats gender-based violence in conflict. The crime of “gender persecution” was codified as a crime against humanity a quarter century ago, but it is only this year that the International Criminal Court issued its first verdict in a gender persecution case.
The top prosecutor of the ICC, Karim A.A. Khan, has made investigating sexual and gender-based crimes a priority since taking office in 2021, including naming Professor Lisa Davis as the court’s first special advisor on gender persecution.
In 2022, the ICC prosecutor’s office issued a sweeping “Policy on the Crime of Gender Persecution,” and it is now working on developing Principles on the Crime of Gender Persecution to guide governments, human rights bodies, judicial actors, and humanitarian rights groups to help prevent this crime against humanity and respond appropriately when it does occur.
Major gender persecution cases could soon emerge from countries where the ICC has open investigations, especially Afghanistan. And recent rulings from Colombia’s transitional justice mechanism, the Special Jurisdiction for the Peace, is also establishing new benchmarks for addressing gender-based violence in conflict.
The Gender Persecution Observatory can be accessed here. The launch of CUNY Law’s Gender Persecution Observatory marks a pivotal moment in the global effort to combat gender-based violence in conflict zones, providing an essential tool for accountability and justice that has the potential to transform how these crimes are documented, prosecuted, and ultimately prevented.
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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.
The Institute on Gender, Law, and Transformative Peace at CUNY Law is a hub for cross-sectoral, cross-movement, and transnational organizing, research, and scholarship. It works to advance rights-based approaches to national and international law and policy, including peace and transitional justice processes, reconstruction, and human rights mechanisms. The Institute is an initiative by CUNY School of Law and Brooklyn College.