Ghazal Andalib, ‘From Refugee Recognition to Accountability: Can the ECJ’s Landmark Ruling Shape the ICC’s Approach to Gender Persecution in Afghanistan?’, 2025

Ghazal Andalib, ‘From Refugee Recognition to Accountability: Can the ECJ’s Landmark Ruling Shape the ICC’s Approach to Gender Persecution in Afghanistan?’, RLI Blog on Refugee Law and Forced Migration, 21 March 2025

Abstract

On October 4, 2024, the European Court of Justice (ECJ) issued a landmark ruling recognizing Afghan nationality alone as sufficient to grant refugee status to Afghan women, given the systematic gender-based persecution they face. The decision made by the court in AH & FN v. Federal Office has significant implications beyond refugee law, offering a potential pathway for shaping the International Criminal Court’s (ICC) approach to gender persecution as a crime against humanity since the case of Afghanistan is currently under investigation by the ICC. This piece examines whether the ECJ’s ruling, while non-binding for the ICC, can serve as a persuasive precedent for developing a more robust jurisprudence in the field of gender persecution.