Published : 25-11-2020
Statistics released by AGPS on the occasion of the International Day for Elimination of Violence against Women documented the death of 487 Palestinian women and girls all the way through Syria’s ten-year conflict, according to death toll data for the period from March 2011 until November 2020.
The United Nations General Assembly has designated November 25 as the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women (Resolution 54/134). The premise of the day is to raise awareness of the fact that women around the world are subject to rape, domestic violence and other forms of violence; furthermore, one of the aims of the day is to highlight that the scale and true nature of the issue is often hidden.
AGPS figures indicate that 243 female refugees died under shelling; 68 died as a result of the blockade and medical neglect in Yarmouk Camp; and 28 others were fatally shot by snipers.
37 female refugees were, meanwhile, killed in blasts; 24 were gunned down; 26 drowned at sea; five female refugees were executed; 34 were tortured to death in Syrian prisons; and 20 others died of other reasons, including murder, assassination, suicide, suffocation, health setbacks, and Israeli bullet fire.
AGPS also documented the secret detention of 110 Palestinian women and girls in Syria’s government prisons.
AGPS kept record of the death of at least 34 Palestinian women under torture in Syria’s state-run penal complexes.
AGPS believes the numbers to be far higher as scores of casualties have gone undocumented after the Syrian authorities kept their names secret. Several families have also refused to reveal their relatives’ names over retaliation concerns.
According to affidavits by ex-detainees, 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.
Statistics released by AGPS on the occasion of the International Day for Elimination of Violence against Women documented the death of 487 Palestinian women and girls all the way through Syria’s ten-year conflict, according to death toll data for the period from March 2011 until November 2020.
The United Nations General Assembly has designated November 25 as the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women (Resolution 54/134). The premise of the day is to raise awareness of the fact that women around the world are subject to rape, domestic violence and other forms of violence; furthermore, one of the aims of the day is to highlight that the scale and true nature of the issue is often hidden.
AGPS figures indicate that 243 female refugees died under shelling; 68 died as a result of the blockade and medical neglect in Yarmouk Camp; and 28 others were fatally shot by snipers.
37 female refugees were, meanwhile, killed in blasts; 24 were gunned down; 26 drowned at sea; five female refugees were executed; 34 were tortured to death in Syrian prisons; and 20 others died of other reasons, including murder, assassination, suicide, suffocation, health setbacks, and Israeli bullet fire.
AGPS also documented the secret detention of 110 Palestinian women and girls in Syria’s government prisons.
AGPS kept record of the death of at least 34 Palestinian women under torture in Syria’s state-run penal complexes.
AGPS believes the numbers to be far higher as scores of casualties have gone undocumented after the Syrian authorities kept their names secret. Several families have also refused to reveal their relatives’ names over retaliation concerns.
According to affidavits by ex-detainees, 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.
