What can you do?
- Send messages to UN Women – see here for links to their social media pages. - Read the letter our firms sent the UN regarding this
- Sign the petition
This Saturday, November 25th, marks the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, as proclaimed by the United Nations General Assembly in 2018. This day initiates the UNiTE campaign (Nov 25 - Dec 10), a 16-day activism initiative concluding on International Human Rights Day (December 10). The Declaration on the Elimination of Violence Against Women, issued by the UN General Assembly in 1993, defines violence against women as "any act of gender-based violence that results in, or is likely to result in, physical, sexual, or psychological harm or suffering to women."
As lawyers representing the leading law firms in Israel, we are shocked by the dissonance between the UN's statements on the Elimination of Violence Against Women and its deafening silence in the face of the brutalization of women in Israel by Hamas terrorists on October 7th, 2023. Israeli women's rights groups and other officials have shown overwhelming evidence of hundreds of women and girls from Israel being brutally raped, mutilated, dragged naked through the streets of Gaza, and other gender-based atrocities that were perpetrated and filmed by Hamas terrorists themselves during their massive, methodical terror attacks. Moreover, at least 84 women and young girls are among the 240 Israeli civilians being held hostage or missing in Gaza, cut off from any communication or other contact with the outside world, without the Red Cross being allowed to check on their health and well-being.
"UN Women" a group that claims to champion the rights of women worldwide, regardless of race or ethnicity, has refused to acknowledge that any atrocities were committed by Hamas against women and girls from Israel. Their sole condemnations refer generically to the “conflict in Gaza”, and to the October 7 massacre as an "attack by Hamas on Israel," thus implying it to be a legitimate act of armed resistance. UN Women has failed even to mention the women, teenagers, and young girls from Israel who were assaulted– no condemnation of sexual violence, no call for release of hostages, not even a demand for Red Cross visits.
How can an organization that claims to be “the global champion for gender equality” ignore brutal crimes against women and girls from Israel?? Have the nations of the world learned nothing since World War II, and their silence in the face of atrocities committed against Jews??
As our friends and colleagues in the international legal community, your support on this matter. We believe that the world's legal community cannot stay silent in the face of blatant basic human rights violations that receive no response from the UN, an organization that was formed to protect all civilian lives.
What can you do?
- Send messages to UN Women – see here for links to their social media pages. - Read the letter our firms sent the UN regarding this
- Sign the petition