Published : 06-01-2023
At least 498 Palestinian women and girls have been pronounced dead since the outbreak of the deadly conflict in the Syrian Arab Republic.
The causes of death include shelling, the blockade, medical neglect, and torture in prison.
Over 40 women have also gone missing in the war-ravaged country.
At the same time, AGPS documented the secret detention of more than 110 Palestinian women and girls in Syria’s government prisons.
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.
At least 498 Palestinian women and girls have been pronounced dead since the outbreak of the deadly conflict in the Syrian Arab Republic.
The causes of death include shelling, the blockade, medical neglect, and torture in prison.
Over 40 women have also gone missing in the war-ravaged country.
At the same time, AGPS documented the secret detention of more than 110 Palestinian women and girls in Syria’s government prisons.
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.
