On 30 November and 1st December 2015, EuroMed Rights organised an advocacy mission in Brussels to address the EU perspective/contribution on the United Nations Security Council Resolution (UNSCR) 1325, with particular focus on the Palestinian and Syrian conflicts.
Based on evidence collated in a factsheet published at this occasion, the mission addressed the situation of violence against women in the context of the Palestinian conflict, highlighting how violence is complicated and exacerbated by the structures and policies of the Israeli military occupation, as well as by the unsettled status of the Palestinian legal framework resulting from it.
According to Palestinian feminist scholars, violence generated by the Israeli military occupation both promotes and strengthens the patriarchal powers and sustains the cycle of violence against women within the Palestinian domestic sphere. This illustrates how Israel’s obligation as the occupying power to protect women in the occupied Palestinian territories (oPt) against violence, in accordance with International Humanitarian Law, the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) and other conventions, is not only neglected but directly violated, as women are deliberately targeted and killed in Israeli military operations.
Furthermore, although Palestine has ratified 21 international conventions, including the CEDAW and the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, both the occupation and a lack of a sovereign Palestinian state prevent the Palestinian authorities from fulfilling their obligations to prevent and protect women from violence.
Finally, the geographical fragmentation of the Palestinian territories is also jeopardizing women’s access to justice for various forms of gender-based violence, by disrupting community-based support systems and social service delivery.
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Op-ed by Lamya Shalaldeh, member of the Women Center for Legal Aid and Counselling (WCLAC), on the 15th anniversary of United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325