Palestinian women’s rights cannot be fulfilled under the current conditions of occupation and violence: GNWP Calls on the Israeli Government to honor obligations under CEDAW

May 24, 2018

The Global Network of Women Peacebuilders (GNWP) condemns the violence and excessive use of force by the Israeli troops against peacefully marching Palestinian protesters.

The violence against Palestinians, which unleashed in the past weeks following the start of the “Great March of Return”, calling for the right of return and an end to the blockade imposed by Israel, is yet another atrocious incident contributing to the humanitarian crisis in Gaza over the past eleven years. The recent violence has killed over 100 Palestinians, and injured many more – including Palestinian women activists, who have been at the forefront of peacebuilding efforts in this region.

As we watch the persistent violence and violation of the rights of Palestinians by the Israeli government and army, we stand in solidarity with women civil society in Palestine, brave women relentlessly working for the achievement of peace and gender equality.

When GNWP held a workshop on synergies between the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) and the UN Security Council Resolution 1325 and supporting resolutions on Women, Peace and Security with Palestinian women activists, and government representatives in March, the message we heard was clear: women’s rights cannot be fulfilled under the current conditions of occupation and violence.

Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories are both State parties to CEDAW, thus sharing a commitment to recognize and uphold the rights of Palestinian women and girls. This was made clear in CEDAW Committee’s “Concluding observations on the sixth periodic report of Israel” from November 2017, which called on Israel to “give full effect to the provisions of the Convention and implement its obligations under international humanitarian law with regard to all persons under its jurisdiction or effective control” (CEDAW/C/ISR/CO/6, para 15).

We note with regret that the recent violence stands in stark defiance of this recommendation and obligation, and call on Israeli government, and the wider international community, to take immediate steps to ensure an end of the violence, and of wider violations of the rights of Palestinians, including Palestinian women and girls, under Israeli Occupation.

For more information, and further calls for an end to the unwarranted and disproportionate violence, please see the following statements on the recent violence by other women’s rights organizations:

http://arrow.org.my/right-of-return-solidarity-palestinians-gaza/

https://wilpf.org/wilpf-joint-statement-to-the-un-human-rights-council-on-palestine/

To request information about GNWP’s work with Palestinian women on the joint implementation of CEDAW and the WPS resolutions, please contact: agnieszka@gnwp.org