A new JBI appeal published today to mark International Women's Day calls on governments to take renewed action to bring an end to severe discrimination and gender-based violence against women and girls around the world.
The appeal, which is available in full here, reflects on three situations:
Afghanistan, where the Taliban have imposed uniquely widespread and systematic institutionalized discrimination against women and girls amounting to gender persecution, a crime against humanity. JBI echoes calls by the UN Special Rapporteur on Afghanistan for governments to refuse to recognize the Taliban and avoid normalizing its rule;
Iran, where women and girls face severe and violent repression, epitomized by the security forces' use of patterns of rape and sexual violence to silence, deter, and punish "Woman, Life, Freedom" protesters documented in a report published today by the UN Fact-Finding Mission on Iran, finding that senior officials bear responsibility for gender persecution; and
Israel, where women and girls experienced horrific violence, including sexual violence, during and following Hamas’s brutal attacks on October 7, 2023, denial of which has deepened the trauma many Israelis are experiencing. JBI welcomes the March 2024 report of the UN Secretary-General's Special Representative on Sexual Violence in Conflict validating these claims and echoes her call for the immediate release of the hostages, still in Hamas' captivity, who remain at great risk.
We urge all leaders to mark International Women’s Day by recognizing these situations and to call for more effective action to acknowledge and secure the rights of women and girls everywhere to equality, autonomy, and protection from violence.
Read the full statement here and below.
JBI Appeal on International Women’s Day
On International Women’s Day, the Jacob Blaustein Institute for the Advancement of Human Rights (JBI) calls on governments to make renewed efforts to bring an end to the severe discrimination and gender-based violence that women and girls are experiencing in many places around the world. We express our support for survivors and advocates for women who have experienced such abuse, including: (1) in Afghanistan under the Taliban’s rule; (2) in Iran, especially since the regime’s brutal crackdown against the “Women, Life, Freedom” protests; and (3) in Israel, where women and girls experienced horrific violence, including sexual violence, during Hamas’s attacks on October 7; the fate of hostages still held captive by Hamas is unknown; and appeals for international solidarity were often met with silence and outright denial that deepened the trauma many are experiencing.
We urge all leaders to mark International Women’s Day by recognizing these situations and to call for more effective action to acknowledge and secure the rights of women and girls everywhere to equality, autonomy, and protection from violence.
In Afghanistan, the situation of women and girls has deteriorated immensely since 2021. The Taliban have imposed uniquely widespread and systematic institutionalized discrimination, which is so serious as to amount to gender persecution. Afghan women and girls face severe restrictions on their access to education and employment, as well as to their rights to freedom of expression, association, privacy, movement, and participation in public life. Women who deviate from the Taliban-imposed restrictions, including a strict dress code mandating that they cover their bodies and faces, and their male relatives, who are required to enforce the restrictions, face arbitrary detention and ill-treatment. So too do civil society activists, journalists, and peaceful protesters. In his most recent report, Richard Bennett, the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Afghanistan, said that the Taliban “have created a national system in which the discrimination, segregation, oppression, and exclusion of women and girls is institutionalized.” Bennett also stressed that “[a]ny inclination towards normalization” with the Taliban “without very substantial progress on...gender equality, should be resisted” and urged the global community to not abandon the human rights of the Afghan people. JBI echoes the Special Rapporteur and urges governments to refuse to recognize the Taliban as the legitimate government of Afghanistan and avoid normalizing its rule so long as its unparalleled restrictions on women’s rights remain in force.
In Iran, severe and violent repression of women and girls persists despite the historic popular protests, led by women and girls chanting "Woman, Life, Freedom," that occurred across Iran in 2022 and 2023, triggered by the death of Jina Mahsa Amini in police custody following her arrest for allegedly failing to adhere to Iran’s mandatory veiling law. Amini’s death catalyzed public outrage over the pervasive violence and discrimination to which the regime has subjected Iranian women for decades. In its first major report, published today, March 8, an independent international fact-finding Mission on Iran, created in late 2022 by the UN Human Rights Council in response to the protests, found that during the subsequent crackdown, Iran’s security forces engaged in persecutory conduct, including patterns of rape and other forms of gender-based and sexual violence, in order to silence, deter, and punish the protesters and their supporters, amounting to crimes against humanity that were committed as part of a pattern of organized conduct, and for which high-level State authorities and senior members of State institutions bear responsibility.
Today, notwithstanding widespread international condemnation of its actions, Iranian authorities continue to tolerate impunity for violence targeting women and girls, and punish women human rights defenders, including Nobel Peace Prize laureate Narges Mohammadi and Sakharov Prize winner Nasrin Sotoudeh, who have been arbitrarily detained. Iranian authorities have denied responsibility for Jina Mahsa Amini’s death and have not punished any official for using excessive force, killing, torturing, raping, or otherwise harming protesters. They have also failed to apprehend the perpetrators of chemical poisoning attacks committed against several girls’ schools during and following the protests. Iranian authorities have enacted new laws and policies that deny women’s equality, resumed apprehending and punishing women who defy the compulsory veiling laws, ordered businesses to assist them in ensuring the laws are enforced, and increased the punishments for women who defy the law, including harsh prison sentences, fines, travel bans, expulsion from educational programs and denial of social services. Further, Javaid Rehman, the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran, has said “a culture of perpetuating impunity has evolved into a State policy of intimidation, harassment and persecution of all those seeking accountability, truth and justice.”
JBI is calling on states to extend the mandate of the independent international fact-finding mission on Iran and also to extend the mandate of the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Iran, who also affirmed that Iran’s crackdown against protesters may amount to crimes against humanity. We urge all governments to implement targeted Magnitsky-style sanctions against the Iranian officials responsible for systematic violence against women, as well as the senior regime officials that the Special Rapporteur has said were likely responsible for ordering their commission during the protest crackdown.
In Israel, victims and witnesses of Hamas’s brutal attacks on October 7, 2023, including released hostages, family members of victims, first responders, victim support and burial workers, women’s rights advocates, and Israeli society at large are experiencing trauma as a consequence of the horrific acts of violence, including sexual and gender-based violence, that have been inflicted by Hamas upon women as well as on men and of the risk of such violence that hostages still in Hamas’s captivity continue to face. Hamas and other Gazan actors killed approximately 1,200 people in Israel on October 7 and took over 240 people hostage, only some of whom have been released to date. Following her 17-day mission to Israel from 29 January to 14 February 2024, the United Nations Special Representative on Sexual Violence in Conflict, Under-Secretary-General Pramila Patten, released a report on the events of October 7, which she described as “brutal” and “horrific.” Her report found that there were “reasonable grounds” to conclude that “conflictrelated sexual violence occurred in multiple locations during the 7 October attacks, including rape and gangrape” and that in most cases “victims first subjected to rape were then killed, and at least two incidents relate to the rape of women’s corpses.” She also found “clear and convincing information that sexual violence, including rape, sexualized torture, cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment has been committed against hostages,” and “reasonable grounds to believe that such violence may be ongoing against those still held in captivity.” SRSG Patten called on Hamas to immediately and unconditionally release all those being held as hostages and to ensure their protection, including from sexual violence. She also called for perpetrators of sexual violence to be brought to justice while offering her office’s support to bolster national efforts.
The initial silence of numerous international and national entities and public figures who are often outspoken about sexual violence allegations, but who did not condemn the allegations made against Hamas, conveyed a lack of international solidarity with Israeli women that deepened Israeli victims’ sense of isolation. Today, some public figures continue to expressly deny that Hamas engaged in acts of sexual violence on October 7; others who have not denied the allegations have simultaneously refused to condemn them, even as more details of witnesses’ testimony have been made publicly available. During her visit to Israel, on February 5, Under-Secretary-General Patten acknowledged the harmful impact of such denial, remarking, "I saw things here that I have not seen anywhere in the world…[o]nly when I am here do I understand the magnitude of the pain, the insult and the anger of Israel regarding how the world did not sufficiently understand and treat the atrocities that happened to you.” Some other UN leaders and experts have similarly expressed horror regarding Hamas’s commission of sexual violence and acknowledged that denial is causing further pain.
JBI continues to appeal to all leaders to demand that Hamas immediately and unconditionally release the remaining hostages it is holding captive, women and men alike. We also welcome efforts by national and international actors to combat denial by unequivocally condemning Hamas for committing sexual and gender-based violence on and since October 7 and calling for perpetrators of sexual violence to be held accountable following independent, impartial investigations.
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