Document Type
Article
Publication Date
5-30-2025
Abstract
On the third anniversary of the second Taliban takeover of Afghanistan, this article analyzes the Taliban regime's flagrant violations of fundamental human rights of women and girls against the guarantees enshrined in the CEDAW Convention. Furthermore, the paper closely examines the Special Rapporteur of Afghanistan’s “all tools” approach where “[t]he full commitment of the international community and its institutions is needed to oppose the architecture of oppression enshrined by” the Taliban and “[w]ithout concerted action, these harms will reverberate down the generations and potentially across the world.” Our article has a larger ambition, one that goes beyond the empowerment of Afghan women and girls toward a transformative project, strengthening the very foundational principles of international law to protect against gender-based discrimination and oppression more broadly. Women have historically existed on the margins of international law and the canonical cases before international tribunals. The resulting silence signals that women are not makers of law--especially international law. Our article offers several examples to illustrate how centering women and correcting their erasure from international law is essential to the pursuit of justice.
Keywords
human rights, international law
Publication Title
Columbia Journal of Transnational Law
Repository Citation
de Silva de Alwis, Rangita; Amirfar, Catherine; and Kennedy, Helena, "Closing the Accountability Gap and Redrawing the Boundaries of International Law: An All Tools Approach to Addressing Systemic Discrimination on the Basis of Sex" (2025). Articles. 571.
https://scholarship.law.upenn.edu/faculty_articles/571
Publication Citation
63 Colum. J. Transnat'l L. 389 (2025)