An assistant professor at Osgoode Hall Law School, Heidi Matthews, was recently invited to present at the Gaza Tribunal.
Her contribution focused on a rarely prosecuted form of genocide, helping expand public understanding of how reproductive violence can be addressed under international law.
Matthews, who is also co-director of the International and Transnational Law Intensive Program, has built an international reputation for her research on genocide, the law of war and the role of law in protecting human rights.
In a recent article in Queen’s University PKI Global Justice Journal, Matthews shared findings from a York-funded Catalyzing Interdisciplinary Research Clusters project she co-leads, which examines colonial genocide in Canadian and global contexts.
The article explores a rarely invoked but significant provision of the Genocide Convention – an international treaty adopted by the UN General Assembly in 1948 that criminalizes genocide and requires signatory states to prevent and punish the crime of genocide, which includes imposing measures intended to prevent births within a targeted group.
While genocide is often associated with mass killings, this provision highlights another form: one aimed at destroying a group by impairing its capacity to regenerate itself. The provision is seldom prosecuted due to its complexity and lack of visibility. Matthews believes that its recognition is essential in contexts where such strategies may be deployed.
“This aspect of genocide is one of the least studied in academic literature,” she says. “It’s an area where legal scholarship can clarify the law’s scope and help the public understand how genocide can take different, sometimes hidden, forms.”
For Matthews, the issue is increasingly relevant as actors in violent conflicts target the social and biological reproduction of groups – including reproductive violence, restricted medical access and other indirect forms of population control.
Recognizing this legal provision, she says, broadens public understanding of the definition of genocide and strengthens legal accountability.
Matthews profiled this work through an invitation to the Gaza Tribunal, an independent people’s tribunal examining possible violations of international law in the context of Israel’s military operations in Gaza.
“These spaces foster vital exchanges between experts and civil society,” she says. “They help build interdisciplinary communities committed to addressing ongoing human rights challenges.”
In her testimony and expert report, Matthews stated that Israel’s restrictions on humanitarian aid in Gaza are impacting reproductive capacity. She cited deprivation of food, essential medicines, medical care, clean water and fuel as contributing factors in the dramatic decline in maternal and newborn health.
According to Matthews, pregnant, postpartum and breastfeeding women, as well as infants, are experiencing preventable complications, including infertility, miscarriage, maternal death, premature birth and infant loss. She notes that data from the first half of 2025 indicate a 41 per cent decline in the birth rate of Palestinians living in Gaza.
“One goal of the tribunal is to translate legal frameworks into language that people outside the legal profession can understand,” she says. “That way, those concerned about human rights can grasp what the law says, where it applies and where it might be insufficient.”