Crimes against women continue in Palestine and the Arab countries. Dua, Reem, Jawhara, and Samar in Palestine,Nayera, Iman, and Lubna in Arab countries.
The Union of Palestinian Woman Committees condemns the rise of incidents of violence and murder against women. Several Arab countries have witnessed tragic killings of nine women since the beginning of this year.
The Union of Palestinian Women Committees considers that the increase of this phenomenon cannot be isolated from the living and political reality of the Arab countries in light of the existence of loopholes in the legal system in those countries. As these societies sink in the outdated traditions that allowed the perpetration and escalation of this phenomenon. While Arab women in Yemen and Syria face the scourge of wars, our women in Palestine face the heinous crimes of the occupation against our people; Five Palestinian were murdered including mothers, journalists and students since the beginning of this year at the hands of the occupation forces. Hanan Khaddour, Ghada Sbeitan, Sherine Abu Akleh, Maha al-Zaatari, Ghufran Warasanah who were murdered by the Israeli occupation will meet the faces of other women who were killed by their societies. Despite the fact that Palestinian women suffer from other kind of violence due to the Israeli ocupation. They also suffer from the same continual persecution as other women in the Arab countries. This comes as a result of the lack of serious action as well as the absence of serious work to end societal violence against women. Here comes the need to have advancement work in
our communities so that it would respect women and their roles.
The Union of Palesetinian Women Committees emphasizes that these crimes are inconsistent with the Women’s rights treaties and conventions which were concluded regarding women’s rights and protection due to the official institutions’ leniency for these crimes.This requires taking strict measures towards what is happening through the application of laws and raising society awareness, as well as not letting any criminal escape from justice by making fundamental amendments to laws related to women, such as the penal code, women’s economic and legal empowerment laws. Besides focusing on the crimes of the occupation against Palestinian women and referring all cases in this regard to the International Criminal Court.
The Union of Palestinian Women Committees emphasizes the role of human rights institutions and women’s movement in Arab countries and in Palestine in addressing this phenomenon, and pushing towards the provision of full protection factors for Arab and Palestinian women alike.
