Security Chaos and Proliferation of Weapons

Extra-Judicial Killing for Family Honor

Field Update

23 August 2006

A Woman Killed in Nusairat Refugee Camp Allegedly for the Protection Family Honor

On Tuesday noon, 22 August 2006, a woman was killed in the central Gaza Strip allegedly to protect family honor.

According to investigations conducted by PCHR, at approximately 13:00 on Tuesday, 22 August 2006, Faiza ‘Eid Abu Sawawin, 35, from al-Hasaina area in the west of Nusairat refugee camp, was brought dead to the al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip. She was hit by several live bullets throughout the body. According to sources of the Attorney-General office in the central Gaza Strip, the victim’s brother, who is a member of the Palestinian Preventive Security Service and lives in the southern Gaza Strip town of Rafah, shot her dead allegedly to protect his family honor.

It is worth noting that killings committed allegedly to protect family honor have escalated in the past two months. According to PCHR’s documentation, on 9 August 200, the Palestinian police found the bodies of two girls in al-Sawarha area, west of Nusairat refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip. The two victims’ brother shot them dead allegedly to protect his family honor. On 30 June 2006, the Palestinian police took out the body of an 18-year-old girl from a cemetery in Rafah.

PCHR strongly condemns such crimes, and stresses that:

1)        Such crimes constitute an attack on the rule of law;

2)        They are a form of extra-judicial killing, and constitute a flagrant violation of human rights, especially the right to life and the right not to be subject to cruel and inhumane treatment; and

3)        The Palestinian National Authority is required to take necessary steps to confront this phenomenon through pursuing the perpetrators of these killings, and bringing them to justice.