Published : 28-11-2021
AGPS has documented the death of 488 Palestinian women and the enforced disappearance of several others in the embattled Syrian territories.
According to AGPS data, at least 37 Palestinian women and girls were tortured to death in Syrian government dungeons, some among whom have been identified via leaked photos.
As many as 110 Palestinian women and girls have, meanwhile, been secretly held in Syrian state jails. Dozens of female refugees have gone missing inside and outside the Syrian territories. Others breathed their last onboard the “death-boats” to Europe, fleeing bloody warfare in Syria.
AGPS believes the number 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 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.
Several women have also gone homeless or widowed after they lost their husbands and/or children in the war or due to torture.
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, social prestige, fear of punishment for those below the age of criminal responsibility, and distrust in law enforcement.
AGPS renews its calls to the international community, human rights institutions, UNRWA, and all concerned bodies to work on protecting Palestinian women and girls in embattled Syria and provide those who fled the war-torn country with physical and moral protection in the host countries.
AGPS has documented the death of 488 Palestinian women and the enforced disappearance of several others in the embattled Syrian territories.
According to AGPS data, at least 37 Palestinian women and girls were tortured to death in Syrian government dungeons, some among whom have been identified via leaked photos.
As many as 110 Palestinian women and girls have, meanwhile, been secretly held in Syrian state jails. Dozens of female refugees have gone missing inside and outside the Syrian territories. Others breathed their last onboard the “death-boats” to Europe, fleeing bloody warfare in Syria.
AGPS believes the number 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 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.
Several women have also gone homeless or widowed after they lost their husbands and/or children in the war or due to torture.
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, social prestige, fear of punishment for those below the age of criminal responsibility, and distrust in law enforcement.
AGPS renews its calls to the international community, human rights institutions, UNRWA, and all concerned bodies to work on protecting Palestinian women and girls in embattled Syria and provide those who fled the war-torn country with physical and moral protection in the host countries.
