Ref: 158/2014
Date: 25 November 2014
Time: 12:30 GMT

In 1999, the UN designated 25th November of each year as the UN International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women. This designation comes as part of the UN efforts to curb violence against women in the world.

This year, the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women comes while the human rights situation in the occupied Palestinian territory, especially in the Gaza Strip, is deteriorating. On one hand, the consequences and impacts resulted from the latest 50-day Israeli offensive on the Gaza Strip, during which Israeli forces violated all international and humanitarian conventions and committed war crimes, still have their impact on the Gaza Strip. This offensive resulted in killing of 2,204 Palestinians, including 289 women, and injury of over 10,895 Palestinians, mostly civilians, including 2114 women.

According to investigations conducted by the Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR’s), the crimes that resulted in killing of women form an obvious pattern of disregard by Israeli forces of the lives of civilians and negligence of two main principles of the international humanitarian law: the principle of proportionality and the principle of distinction. Moreover, the suffering of Palestinian women was not limited to killings and injuries, but they also lived other gruesome experiences due to being forcibly displaced from their houses and resorting to the UNRWA shelters, which extremely lacked basic services. Women faced extremely difficult circumstances in terms of lack of privacy and overcrowding or poor health conditions. Hundreds of families still live in shelters while hundreds were forced to return to their destroyed and uninhabitable houses.

Additionally, this offensive left significant impacts on the lives of women due to the patriarchal nature of the Palestinian society as women in the Gaza Strip are victims of distinction in time of peace as well as victims of marginalization, poverty and suffering in wartime and after.

PCHR stresses the importance of accountability and draws attention to the fact that many human rights violations perpetrated by Israeli forces during this offensive were similar to those perpetrated in the 2008-2009 and 2012 offensives. PCHR also highlights that the impunity given to the Israeli soldiers and the international community’s failure to prosecute them for crimes that left behind dozens of victims, including children and women. have encouraged those soldiers to commit more crimes in the context of prevailing impunity.

Furthermore, Palestinian women continue to suffer domestic violence that has been escalating in light of the deterioration of living, economic and social conditions in the Palestinian society. According to PCHR’s documentation, many women have been killed in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip since the beginning of 2014 on different grounds and in mysterious conditions. Three women were killed on the ground of the so-called “family honor”.

In light of the aggravation of the suffering of Palestinian women in the Gaza Strip, PCHR:

1. Emphasizes that the international community has to fulfill its obligations, the most important of which are offering protection to civilians and obliging the occupying power to respect human rights;
2. Calls upon the international community to promptly act to pressurize Israel to respect human rights, be committed to the provisions of international humanitarian law and put an end to its continuous violations against civilians, especially the closure imposed on the Gaza Strip which deprives them, including women, of their rights that are ensured under the international law;
3. Calls upon the Palestinian National Authority and Palestinian unity government to take necessary action to stop domestic violence and prosecute the perpetrators of crimes against women; and
4. Emphasizes that the continued disruption of the Palestinian Legislative Council prevents the adoption of more equitable laws in order to offer women more protection.