PALESTINE: Few Legal Options for Abused Palestinian Women, Say Activists
Photo:
Tom Spender/IRIN |
Palestinian women can be
murdered for having sex before or outside marriage under the guise of
'family honour' |
RAMALLAH, 3 October 2007 (IRIN) -
Palestinian female victims of domestic violence have little chance of escaping
their situation or bringing the perpetrators to justice as they face a legal
system stacked in favour of the accused and a prevailing attitude that places
blame on the victim, women's rights experts said.
Moreover, many women
who have been raped are then killed by family members in "honour killings" for
having brought shame to their family.
"Very seldom are the killers
arrested or charged," and when they are, the maximum sentence that can be
imposed is six months, said Masshoor Basisy, general director of planning at the
Palestinian Authority (PA) Ministry for Women's Affairs.
"Violence
against women is regarded as a taboo subject in our patriarchal society and with
the problems associated with the occupation… in the [Palestinian] territories it
has not been addressed adequately," Dima Nashashibi, deputy director of the
Women's Centre for Legal Advice and Counselling (WCLAC) in Ramallah, told IRIN.
Photo:
UNICEF-oPt |
Palestinian women in violent
or life-threatening marriages have two legal options available to them:
pressing charges for spousal abuse or initiating a divorce on the basis of
physical harm - according to HRW |
HRW report
A Human Rights Watch (HRW) report released last year said:
"Palestinian women in violent or life-threatening marriages have two legal
options available to them: pressing charges for spousal abuse or initiating a
divorce on the basis of physical harm."
The report, entitled A Question
of Security: Violence against Palestinian Women and Girls, said that to pursue
either of these two legal options, women required evidence of extreme violence,
and a high evidentiary burden was placed on the victim.
Furthermore,
"neither the Jordanian nor the Egyptian penal codes in force in the West Bank
and Gaza respectively recognise sexual violence committed within marriage," HRW
said.
Under existing family status laws in the occupied Palestinian
territories (oPt), the report added, Palestinian women need to provide two
eye-witnesses, who are not relatives, if they wish to initiate a divorce on the
grounds of spousal abuse.
Mandatory charges are only pressed if the
victim is hospitalised for a period of between 10 and 20 days. A judge can
dismiss the case as a "minor offence" at his discretion if the hospital stay is
under that period, said HRW.
Compounding the problem is the lack of
medical professionals or Health Ministry staff who have specialised training in
dealing with female victims of violence, preserving evidence of abuse, and
maintaining confidentiality.
"Legally the police are under no obligation
to arrest or charge the perpetrators for less serious assaults," Basisy, from
the Ministry for Women's Affairs, told IRIN
Domestic violence in OPT |
|
West Bank Domestic
Violence
• 24 percent of women were subjected to
physical abuse
• 12 percent of women were subjected to sexual
abuse. |
|
Gaza Strip Domestic Violence
• 23 percent of women were subjected to physical abuse
• 10 percent of women were subjected to sexual abuse |
|
Overall oPt
•
Only 1.2 percent of women who had experienced domestic violence lodged a
formal complaint against their husbands with the police
• Less
than 1 percent of abused women sought counselling and protection at the
police station |
Source: Palestinian Central
Bureau of Statistics, 2006 [Survey done between December 2005 and January
2006, in 2,772 households in the West Bank and 1,440 in the Gaza
Strip] |
"Honour killings"
"Furthermore, over the last three to four decades fewer than 12
men have been jailed for `honour killings'. Our ministry has proposed changes to
the penal code on various occasions but these were rejected by the Supreme
Judicial Council," said Basisy, referring to a Palestinian office which approves
legislation before it is passed on to the Palestinian Legislative Council.
According to professional estimates, there have been 51 "honour
killings" in the oPt in the last three years, with 12 killed so far in 2007.
Some advocates say the true numbers are much higher as few women bother to
report the attacks due to the difficulty of laying charges and the "shame"
involved. (See box).
However, progress has been made at the education
level through a number of domestic violence workshops held by the WCLAC for West
Bank police, Nashashibi said.
While initially many policemen were not
aware of the issue, she said, after completing the course some had intervened in
cases and brought battered women to the refuge themselves.
Obstacles
However, women's status within
society still affects their ability to break free from an abusive home.
"Obstacles include women being unable to support themselves should they
leave their husbands, with only 12 percent of Palestinian women working outside
of the home," said Nashashibi.
"They will probably also lose custody of
their children and the support of their families as the courts tend to favour
the fathers in custody battles," she added.
In a move to offer abused
women safety, the PA's Ministry of Social Affairs and the Ministry of Women's
Affairs, in conjunction with WCLAC, have established three shelters for battered
women in Nablus, Jericho and Bethlehem in the West Bank. Together they
accommodate 50 women for a month each.
"We provide legal advice and
counselling to the women," Nashashibi explained. "Depending on the circumstances
of each case, women either return home after their stay, if the threat has
subsided through counselling or family intervention, or are found emergency
shelter in another refuge if this is too dangerous."