United Nations Human Rights Council

• Since then, Afghan women have been denied the most basic human rights in what can only be described as gender apartheid.
• The Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission has been dissolved and the country’s 2004 constitution repealed, while legislation guaranteeing gender equality has been invalidated.

Women targeted

• Of the approximately 80 edicts issued by the Taliban, 54 specifically target women, severely restricting their rights and violating Afghanistan’s international obligations and its previous constitutional and domestic laws.
• The Taliban appear undeterred, continuing where they left off 20 years ago when they first held power.

International crime

• Karima Bennoune, an Algerian-American international law scholar, has advocated recognizing gender apartheid as a crime under international law.
• Criminalizing gender apartheid would provide the international community with a powerful legal framework to effectively respond to Taliban abuses.
• While the UN has already labelled the situation in Afghanistan gender apartheid, the term is not currently recognized under the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court as being among the worst international crimes.

South African support

• Most remarkably, Bronwen Levy, South Africa’s representative at the Security Council, has urged the international community to “take action against what (Bennett’s) report describes as gender apartheid, much like it did in support of South Africa’s struggle against racial apartheid.” Elsewhere, the chair of the European Parliament’s Committee on Women’s Rights and Gender Equality, as well as the head of its Delegation for Relations with Afghanistan, have described the “unacceptable” situation in Afghanistan as one of gender apartheid.
• Whenever and wherever apartheid systems emerge, it represents a failure of the international community.
• Recognizing Taliban rule as gender apartheid is not only critical for Afghans, it is equally critical for the credibility of the entire UN system.

• And although it’s an EU law, it will also cover foreign businesses – including American ones – that have operations in the region.
• The EU law would be the biggest attempt yet to legally mandate compliance – with major implications for human rights and businesses around the world.

Human rights and big business

• Human rights are those fundamental rights that all individuals hold simply by virtue of being human, such as rights to life and freedom of thought.
• Increasingly, however, they are also informing business regulations, because powerful companies can have serious impacts on individuals’ human rights.
• In 2011, the United Nations Human Rights Council took a step toward policing these abuses by unanimously adopting “guiding principles” on business and human rights.

Doing your due diligence

• Human rights due diligence is a process by which companies are meant to map out, understand and address all potential human rights abuses that occur throughout their operations.
• The term “due diligence” is borrowed from the common business practice of financial due diligence, wherein financial risks are investigated before any large investment.
• So just as businesses evaluate financial risks, human rights advocates argue companies should put similar effort into investigating the risk that an activity might violate someone’s human rights.
• The law would cover most human rights, including labor rights and environmental rights, past or present.

Bad for business?

• While many companies have already endorsed mandatory due diligence rules, others worry this kind of government mandate would be too onerous.
• Some companies also strongly resist the idea of being held responsible for human rights violations that take place in their supply chains overseas.

Ripe for US rules

• For this reason, the U.S. has so far preferred voluntary rules when it comes to pushing companies to respect human rights.
• Between these rules there is a clear trend developing of an increasing number of U.S. companies being obligated to implement some form of human rights due diligence.
• But these rules, unlike the developing European approach, are very narrowly tailored and don’t require companies to routinely undertake due diligence.
• As a result, the U.S. companies that would be subject to the EU rules would be at a competitive disadvantage to many of their domestic rivals.

• The UAE Ministry of Interior launches new Child Protection Strategy to tackle the surge of online child abuse at the United Nations Human Rights Council's 43rd Session of the Universal Periodic Review.
• UAE intends to promote a holistic approach for child protection, which empowers children, upholds values and creates a safe and cohesive environment online.
• Speaking at the launch event, Irakli Beridze, Head of the Centre for AI and Robotics at UNICRI, highlighted the use of AI as the most progressive way to safeguard children online and endorsed UAE's strategy.
• The newly unveiled Child Protection Strategy builds on the UAE MOI's global leadership advocacy, capacity-building, operations and policy-making relevant for improving the protection of children online.

• The coalition also organized an international symposium in Geneva, parallel to the 52nd session of the Human Rights Council, which discussed the existing and future challenges for human rights in the UAE.
• A symposium organized by a coalition of human rights organizations discussed the recent progress made in human rights in the UAE.
• The symposium was attended by experts in the field of human rights and representatives from various countries.
• The final statement paid tribute to the global impact of the President of the UAE, Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed, in furthering peace, promoting tolerance and human coexistence, developing greater capacity for human fraternity.