Ref: 110/2020

Date: 21 October 2020

Time: 11:00 GMT

On Wednesday, 21 October 2020, a woman’s dead body was found in a house in Nabi Ilyas village, east of Qalqilya, showing signs of assault throughout her body. The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) views with concern the growing phenomenon of social violence, including murder crimes on various grounds and the murder cases of women and girls in the Palestinian society.

According to PCHR’s investigations, at approximately 05:30 on Wednesday, 21 October 2020, Palestinian security services were notified that a dead body was found on the threshold of a house in Nabi Ilyas village, east of Qalqilya. The police rushed into the scene, examined it and opened an investigation into the incident, and referred the dead body to the Forensic Medicine Department to identify the cause of death.  According to the forensics report, the victim was identified as S. ‘A (24), who was pregnant and had 2 children, and her body showed signed of assault. In a press release, Qalqilya Mayor stated that the security services arrested the victim’s husband, Sh. ‘A. S. (27), and his brother. According to the police’s statement, the victim’s husband had previously assaulted her while intoxicated; she attempted to escape to her parents’ house before, but she was brought back to her husband’s house.

PCHR affirms that the Palestinian Authority (PA) is obliged to provide protection for women from violence, particularly family violence, according to their obligations under the 1979 the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women. This obligation entails enactment of laws and provision of the necessary protection mechanisms, as well as changing social and cultural norms to avoid subjecting women to violence, particularly family violence. Consequently, PCHR condemns this crime and expresses concern over the increasing cases of violence against women. PCHR calls upon the Public Prosecution to exert more efforts to prosecute the perpetrators of murder crimes, including crimes against women and girls, and stresses the important role of the Judiciary role in applying the law to this crime as a premeditated murder and not reward the criminals with light sentences.

PCHR also calls upon the PA to commit to the international conventions it acceded to, which requires it to take all measures to protect women, including disposal of motives and background in murder crimes against women, and to enact deterrent legislations to limit the spread of this phenomenon.