MIFTAH
Thursday, 28 March. 2024
 
Your Key to Palestine
The Palestinian Initiatives for The Promotoion of Global Dialogue and Democracy
 
 
 

Ramallah – A Palestinian delegation participated in the 59th session of the UN Commission on the Status of Women in a special meeting in New York, calling for equality for Palestinian women. The meetings, which continued over the course of two weeks, achieved several goals in various fields to promote the rights of women and empower them.

Strategies for action

Deputy Executive Director of the UN Commission on the Status of Women Lakshmi Puri said the participants agreed on six strong strategies for action towards promoting the application of law, legal policies, institutional mechanisms and frameworks, the large increase in resources to fill the gaps, information about accountability and evaluation monitoring, all of which she said were “necessary”. The meetings were held on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the Beijing Declaration on the rights of women. Puri said the member states reaffirmed their commitment to speed up action and invest in achieving equality and women’s empowerment by 2030.

Palestinian national women’s institutions hold special meeting

MIFTAH organized a special meeting as part of the Commission’s meetings in cooperation with the General Union of Palestinian Women, members of the National Coalition for the implementation of UN Resolution 1325, the International Women’s League for Peace and Freedom, the Independent Commission for Human Rights, the YWCA, the Free Cultural Thought Forum in Gaza and the UNFPA, with funding from OXFAM. The meeting was attended by 130 delegations advocating for human rights and international organizations and activists. It was aimed at increasing awareness on the state of human rights in Palestine. A brief history of Israeli military violations and growing settler and Israeli army violence against Palestinians was presented, all of which represent violations of international humanitarian law. This particularly includes land confiscation, the takeover of properties in Jerusalem, the dissecting of Palestinian territories, Israel’s continued siege on the Gaza Strip, its control over crossings and natural resources and the continued occupation of over 60% of Palestinian land occupied in 1967.

At the beginning of the meeting a short documentary was shown, highlighting the true stories of Palestinian women in the Gaza Strip after the Israeli offensive in July, 2014. The film, entitled “Meramiyeh [sage] was produced by the Free Cultural Thought Forum in Gaza in partnership with UNFPA. The participants were gripped by the story of the ‘meramiyeh”, planted on a rooftop in Gaza, which was completely destroyed during the aggression, and prompted several questions about facts that were not covered in the western media.

Dr. Feidy: Hold Israel accountable

In her address, MIFTAH CEO Dr. Lily Feidy called on UN member states to exert pressure on the Israeli government to immediately end its occupation of Palestinian territory and to stop its flagrant violations of the Geneva Conventions of 1949. “We, Palestinian women organizations urge member states to exert every effort to guarantee an end to this occupation of Palestinian territories,” Feidy said. “This is the only way to achieve sustainable peace and security in Palestine.”

Feidy also called for an end to the siege and imposed restrictions on movement between the Gaza Strip and West Bank and for a guaranteed safe passage and arrival at medical facilities for women in the Palestinian territories in accordance with the Fourth Geneva Convention. Furthermore, she called for more attention to be given to the needs of Palestinian women prisoners in Israeli jails.

Immediate arrangements for the reconstruction of the Gaza Strip

Feidy called on participants to pressure UN member states and the Human Rights Council to ensure that immediate measures are taken to reconstruct Gaza and to hold Israel accountable for the destruction it caused. She also said guarantees were necessary to prevent Israel from wreaking more destruction in the future. She called on these countries to deliberate with women in the reconstruction process and to view this process from a comprehensive perspective for both genders. Feidy reiterated that all high contracting parties to the Geneva Conventions are obligated to honor the commitments in the conventions pertaining to occupied Palestine.

Empowering women in resolving conflicts and in peace building

Furthermore , Feidy called for the empowerment of women and for involving them in resolving conflicts and peace-making through integrating the gender perspective in these processes . She pointed out that this was the collective responsibility of the international community to ensure the protection of women according to UN Resolutions 1325, 2122 and CEDAW’s Recommendation 30. Feidy concluded her address by calling on the committee to put women on the Beijing +20 agenda and give special attention to women under occupation and in conflict zones. She urged countries to offer tangible measures to guarantee strategies and national action plans to confront such situations.

Baramki: Promoting Palestinian women’s participation

At the start of the meeting Mrs. Haifa Baramki presented a historical summary of the Israeli occupation, its violations and impacts on the Palestinians in general and on the women’s movement in particular. She also briefed the audience on the role of this movement in issues of liberation and in promoting the participation of women in decision-making. She then briefed them on the applicability of UN Resolution 1325 in the Palestinian context given the continued occupation and its violations against Palestinian civilians, especially women. She maintained that this effort complements the work of the national coalition in implementing the resolution.

Baramki then showcased the suffering of Palestinian women over decades due to the Israeli occupation including their killing, arrest and harassment, and also their lack of free movement and denial of basic rights to medical treatment and health services. This situation, she added, necessitates the intervention of the international community to offer Palestinian women protection and to hold the Israeli government accountable for its measures against them.

Kaoud: From victims of violence to agents of change

MIFTAH Development Director and gender expert Hanan Kaoud pointed to the plan set by the National Coalition for Resolution 1325, which was completed last month in direct coordination with the General Union for Palestinian Women, maintaining that the resolution cast light on the central role of women in peace making and in conflict resolution. This, she said, transformed the role of women from victims of violence to agents of change. “For Palestinian women, this resolution constitutes a launching point for promoting accountability for perpetrators of violence, especially violence committed by the Israeli occupation.”

She went on to say that by developing the national plan to implement Resolution 1325, more space has been provided for Palestinian women in formulate strategies and broaden the platform for action. She said the resolution offered an opportunity for Palestinian women to participle in political decision-making within the context of peace and security and provided international tools and mechanisms in reaching justice and security. This includes documenting Israeli army and settler violations, saying such documentation helps to mobilize international support for the Palestinians and put pressure on the Security Council and member countries to help attain freedom and independence for Palestine and protection for Palestinians, women in particular, from all forms of violence.

Ramadan: positive responses

Meanwhile, Suheir Ramadan addressed the implementation of the resolution at the local level. She pointed to positive responses by grassroots organizations through training and awareness workshops and initiatives aimed at increasing the percentage of women in political actions and empowering young women to reach decision-making positions. Ramadan commended the role of grassroots organizations and the Coalition institutions in documenting the crimes of the occupation at the local and national levels and presenting reports on this to UN bodies in order to pressure towards holding the occupation accountable for its crimes and violations of all international laws and charters.

UN Commission on the Status of Women

The Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) is the principal global intergovernmental body exclusively dedicated to the promotion of gender equality and the empowerment of women. A functional commission of the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), it was established by Council resolution 11(II) of 21 June 1946.

The CSW is instrumental in promoting women’s rights, documenting the reality of women’s lives throughout the world, and shaping global standards on gender equality and the empowerment of women. (http://www.unwomen.org/en/csw)

 
 
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