Published : 29-03-2019
39 Palestinian women and girls have gone missing since the outbreak of the Syrian conflict. The list includes nine refugees from Yarmouk Camp and 10 from AlTadhamun neighborhood.
According to activists, several abductions were carried under the security guise. Arrestees’ families have often been subjected to blackmail and extortion.
Over 300 Palestinian refugees, male and female, have gone missing in war-ragged Syria, half of whom are from Yarmouk Camp, south of Damascus.
According to affidavits by ex-detainees and breakaways, Palestinian women and girls have been subjected to harsh psycho-physical torture tactics in Syrian penitentiaries, including electric shocks, heavy beating using iron sticks, and sexual abuse.
Such practices represent flagrant violations of the Declaration on the Protection of Women and Children in Emergency and Armed Conflict of 1974, Article 5, which criminalizes all forms of torture and mistreatment against women and children.
Inherently a taboo misdemeanor in the MENA region, violence against women, be it sexual, physical, or verbal, has remained under-reported among the Palestinian refugee community in Syria, with reasons wavering between fear of retaliation, embarrassment, fear of punishment for those below the age of criminal responsibility, and distrust in law enforcement.
AGPS believes that the number is far higher due to the gag orders enforced by the Syrian regime on the detainees’ fates and names, along with the reluctance of the casualties’ families to reveal the names of their deceased or missing relatives for fear of retaliation.
39 Palestinian women and girls have gone missing since the outbreak of the Syrian conflict. The list includes nine refugees from Yarmouk Camp and 10 from AlTadhamun neighborhood.
According to activists, several abductions were carried under the security guise. Arrestees’ families have often been subjected to blackmail and extortion.
Over 300 Palestinian refugees, male and female, have gone missing in war-ragged Syria, half of whom are from Yarmouk Camp, south of Damascus.
According to affidavits by ex-detainees and breakaways, Palestinian women and girls have been subjected to harsh psycho-physical torture tactics in Syrian penitentiaries, including electric shocks, heavy beating using iron sticks, and sexual abuse.
Such practices represent flagrant violations of the Declaration on the Protection of Women and Children in Emergency and Armed Conflict of 1974, Article 5, which criminalizes all forms of torture and mistreatment against women and children.
Inherently a taboo misdemeanor in the MENA region, violence against women, be it sexual, physical, or verbal, has remained under-reported among the Palestinian refugee community in Syria, with reasons wavering between fear of retaliation, embarrassment, fear of punishment for those below the age of criminal responsibility, and distrust in law enforcement.
AGPS believes that the number is far higher due to the gag orders enforced by the Syrian regime on the detainees’ fates and names, along with the reluctance of the casualties’ families to reveal the names of their deceased or missing relatives for fear of retaliation.
