The International Women's Day, which
the world is celebrating on March 8
every year, of women's key role in building the society and advancement and
progress, they are considered as the half of the society but they are really
the entire community. This date came as the World Day for Women was adopted by
the United Nations in 1977 when the UN passed a resolution calling for the
world to adopt any day of the year they choose to celebrate women, so the
majority of states decided to choose the eighth of March, thus turning the day
into a symbol of the struggle of women. The Palestinian Association for Human
Rights "Witness” feels very concerned and disappointed, because the Palestinian women rights are fully ignored, in
addition to sufferings of asylum and forced migration and miserable diaspora
living conditions, and the denial of basic human and social economic rights.
There is no doubt that a large gap between what the international community
calls to respect women and their discretion, and what is practiced as the
pressures and the looting of rights and freedoms. The Palestinian women are
denied from the right to work and to own property and to live in dignity in
many of regions as a result of the bloody conflict in Syria and other Arab
regions. She is either a refugee in
Diaspora, either drowned at sea or missing in an unknown location. UNRWA
declines to fulfill its humanitarian obligations towards the Palestinian
refugees. Palestinian woman was wounded in the heart and she was vulnerable to humiliation and even death at
the health service centers. Palestinian women are exposed daily to the serious
violations by the Israeli occupation authorities, who take away the right to
life, work and travel and live with dignity, as well as the arrest and
arbitrary exercise of all forms of torture. The Palestinian women in the Gaza
Strip suffer from the ravages of the siege imposed by the Israeli occupation
authorities. With all that, the Palestinian woman hit the daily examples of the
meanings of steadfastness and challenge and continued to struggle in search of
a missing link between human dignity and legal texts on the one hand and
inhumane practices on the other hand.
The Palestinian Association for
Human Rights "Witness” congratulates generally women, especially the
Palestinian women, and calls for:
1-
We
support the Palestinian women's rights in all fields and areas and in all
places of existence.
2-
We
call for the application of the relevant international conventions,
particularly relating to their rights directly.
3-
We call
to compel the occupation authorities to apply the rules of international
humanitarian law and the protection of special groups, particularly women.
4-
We
call on the international community to further support to UNRWA in order to
fulfill their duties towards refugees in general and Palestinian women in
particular.
5-
We
call on the warring parties to armed conflict zones to protect civilians,
particularly women.
Beirut 8
March, 2017
Palestinian
Association for Human Rights