Clothes lines full of dresses donated by survivors of sexual violence hang on the Lange Voorhout. The art installation called Thinking of You 2024 by the artist Alketa Xhafa Mripa is a tribute to survivors of sexual violence around the world.
#Palestine / Josh Paul: ‘Israel declared charity who raised alarm over rape in Israeli prison a terrorist entity’ (December 2023)
[…] Former US State Department official, Josh Paul, said Israel declared a charity a terrorist entity after it raised allegations about the rape of a 13-year-old boy in an Israeli prison. Paul made the comments while speaking with Christiane Amanpour on CNN on Monday.
[…] The U.S. government considers torture, extrajudicial killing, enforced disappearance, and rape under color of law as GVHRs when implementing the Leahy law. Incidents are examined on a fact-specific basis. The State Department Leahy law includes an exception permitting resumption of assistance to a unit if the Secretary of State determines and reports to Congress that the government of the country is taking effective steps to bring the responsible members of the security forces unit to justice.
#Israel / "All the Evidence of Hamas Rape on October 7" So Far
Haaretz's Liza Rozovsky attempts to reconstruct sexual violence evidence on October 7th, based on what's known so far to investigators, not avoiding mentioning the falsifications by #ZAKA volunteers, the Israeli government failure to acknowledge the UN special report, and one confession so far from #IJ militant (who's a prisoner of war) Manar Qassem.
[...] "The real problem is the ability to go to trial on the basis of admissible evidence of a sufficient level for a court" to convict, a senior source in the State Prosecutor's Office told Haaretz, with regard to the investigation. "The investigators are leaving no stone unturned in trying to obtain evidence, every day brings new things. The last word has not yet been said."
[...] Thus, with no charges regarding the sexual attacks having yet been presented to the court, Haaretz spoke with dozens of sources who are dealing with the subject, in an effort to map out the evidence, testimonies and other findings that establish that sex crimes were committed, and to understand what material is still missing.
[...] At the conclusion of the UN report, Patten recommended both to the enforcement agencies in Israel and to international bodies "to bring all perpetrators, regardless of rank or affiliation, to justice based on individual, superior and command responsibility," and she urged Israel to sign a cooperation framework with her office in order to improve the mechanisms of justice dealing with sexual violence. "Patten came with clean hands and courage," Ben-Or says. "I think we should extend a hand and grab this help."
[...] The politicians in Israel did exactly the opposite. Foreign Minister Yisrael Katz chose to attack "the silencing of the sex crimes" by the UN precisely after the report was submitted and resonated widely in the world media.
‘Welcome to Hell’: #UN Panel Says Russian #WarCrimes Are Widespread
In a report headed to the #HumanRights Council in #Geneva next week, an investigative commission outlines the ongoing torture & starvation of Ukrainian prisoners.
2 yrs after #Russia’s full-scale invasion of #Ukraine, #UN investigators say they uncovered new evidence of systematic & widespread #torture of Ukrainian prisoners held by Russian security forces.
A UN Commission of Inquiry on Fri detailed a range of what it described as Russian #WarCrimes, incl’g summary #executions, #SexualViolence & forced transfer of Ukrainian #children into Russia. The commission paid special attn to “horrific” treatment of Ukrainian prisoners….
This is one of the most traumatizing texts that I have read in a long time. Kudos to the interviewers who actually recorded those interviews.
The text is open access.
In an Abusive State: How Neoliberalism Appropriated the Feminist Movement Against Sexual Violence by Kristin Bumiller
In an Abusive State puts forth a powerful argument: that the feminist campaign to stop sexual violence has entered into a problematic alliance with the neoliberal state.
#Palestine / UN experts [*] appalled by reported human rights violations against Palestinian women and girls
[…] Palestinian women and girls have reportedly been arbitrarily executed in Gaza, often together with family members, including their children, according to information received.
[…] Many have reportedly been subjected to inhuman and degrading treatment, denied menstruation pads, food and medicine, and severely beaten. On at least one occasion, Palestinian women detained in Gaza were allegedly kept in a cage in the rain and cold, without food.
“We are particularly distressed by reports that Palestinian women and girls in detention have also been subjected to multiple forms of sexual assault, such as being stripped naked and searched by male Israeli army officers. At least two female Palestinian detainees were reportedly raped while others were reportedly threatened with rape and sexual violence,”
[*] The experts: Reem Alsalem, Special Rapporteur on violence against women and girls, its causes and consequences; Francesca Albanese, Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967; Dorothy Estrada Tanck (Chair), Claudia Flores, Ivana Krstić, Haina Lu, and Laura Nyirinkindi, Working group on discrimination against women and girls.
#Paelstine / UN experts [*] appalled by reported human rights violations against Palestinian women and girls
[…] Palestinian women and girls have reportedly been arbitrarily executed in Gaza, often together with family members, including their children, according to information received.
[…] Many have reportedly been subjected to inhuman and degrading treatment, denied menstruation pads, food and medicine, and severely beaten. On at least one occasion, Palestinian women detained in Gaza were allegedly kept in a cage in the rain and cold, without food.
“We are particularly distressed by reports that Palestinian women and girls in detention have also been subjected to multiple forms of sexual assault, such as being stripped naked and searched by male Israeli army officers. At least two female Palestinian detainees were reportedly raped while others were reportedly threatened with rape and sexual violence,”
[*] The experts: Reem Alsalem, Special Rapporteur on violence against women and girls, its causes and consequences; Francesca Albanese, Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967; Dorothy Estrada Tanck (Chair), Claudia Flores, Ivana Krstić, Haina Lu, and Laura Nyirinkindi, Working group on discrimination against women and girls.
#IDF / New testimonies detail torture and abuse of Gazan detainees in Israeli jails, detention centres
[…] The most concerning testimonies that Euro-Med Monitor received concern female detainees who were directly sexually harassed. The female detainees, who preferred to remain unidentified due to safety concerns, said that Israeli soldiers had harassed them by touching their genitals as well as making them remove their headscarves. Additionally, the rights group confirmed that the soldiers forced the female detainees and their families into providing information about others by threatening to indecently assault and even rape them.
"It appears that the New York Times manipulated a working-class Mizrahi family in the service of Israeli hasbara in order to score a journalistic achievement, which in reality is nothing more than a repetition of fake news and government propaganda."
"New doubts are emerging about the New York Times’s coverage of sexual violence in the October 7 attack. The paper must explain why it broke its own rules by hiring a clearly biased writer who endorsed racist and violent rhetoric toward Palestinians."