Security and Safety: 16 Days Campaign to Combat Violence Against Women and Girls

07/12/2023

The Women’s and Girls’ Protection Network launched the “16 Days Campaign to Combat Violence Against Women and Girls” themed “Security and Safety for Women, Girls, and Children of Gaza” to enforce UN Security Council Resolution 1325. This campaign targets Palestinian camps and communities in Lebanon, where violence against women and girls has spread like a plague, especially in recent years, with the number of survivors doubling due to the COVID-19 pandemic, regional conflicts, climate change, and economic crises associated with wars and conflicts. Given all these factors, the lack of security and safety for Palestinian women and girls has worsened. The situation has become even more complex this year due to the lack of access to livelihoods, social and humanitarian protection for Palestinian women, not only in Lebanon but also in Gaza, the West Bank, and occupied Jerusalem. Issues of equality, violence, and discrimination are no longer just causes to be raised and demanded an end to; now, the pressing issues for Palestinian women are their survival and protection from death, displacement, and forced migration.

As the global women’s movement commemorates the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women from November 25 to December 10, we witness the continued complicity of most Western countries and the division of international institutions regarding the massacres, genocide, and ethnic cleansing faced by women, girls, children, and the Palestinian people in Gaza and the West Bank, including Jerusalem. Double standards and hypocrisy in dealing with human rights, women’s rights, and international conventions related to these rights have prevailed, affecting not only Palestinian women but also the entire Palestinian people’s right to life. The right to life and survival from genocide has become a topic subject to debate and interpretation, highlighting the double standards.

Let us come together on this day, the International Day for the Elimination of Violence and Discrimination Against Women and Girls, to uphold the right to life and protection from genocide and ethnic cleansing. We stand against the crimes committed by the Israeli apartheid regime against the Palestinian people, women, girls, and children in Gaza, the West Bank, and Jerusalem. This year, let us unite against the double standards in human rights for women and peoples and demand a ceasefire in Gaza, providing humanitarian protection for women, girls, and children, and ensuring a dignified life by lifting the full blockade on Gaza.

Let us join forces and call on the United Nations Security Council for immediate intervention to protect women, ceasefire implementation, and achieve security and safety for Palestinian women and children by enforcing Security Council Resolution 1325. There is no security without justice for peoples and women, and no safety without the security of peoples and women. The international community, including the Security Council, must fulfil their roles established for protecting peoples, preventing war crimes, and bringing perpetrators to justice.

This year, we rise together against injustice, aggression, and genocidal wars, against the double standards of Western countries and international institutions. As Palestinian women, we demand the implementation of international decisions related to our national and human rights.

The Women’s and Girls’ Protection Network in Palestinian camps and communities in Lebanon comprises local and international institutions and associations working to defend women’s and girls’ rights and provide services related to these rights. It includes active stakeholders and decision-makers at the local Palestinian community level in Lebanon. The network aims to coordinate and collaborate to provide necessary psychological, social, and legal services and interventions for women survivors of violence within a joint work system that obliges all members. This system references international agreements and conventions related to women’s rights and their protection from all forms of violence, discrimination, and neglect.

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