Gender apartheid refers to an institutionalized system of domination and oppression based on gender. It involves the systematic exclusion of women and girls, or other gendered groups, from public life, education, employment, and basic freedoms.
Under current international criminal law, apartheid is recognized as a crime against humanity, but its legal definition is mainly framed around racial domination. However, gender-based oppression may already be prosecuted through other crimes against humanity, e.g., persecution on gender grounds, enslavement, imprisonment, torture, or other inhumane acts, but there is no distinct international crime that specifically captures gender-based domination as a regime-wide system of control.