Professor Zeinab al-Ghunaimi, Director of The Center for Women’s Legal Researches, Counselling and Protection (CWLRCP), participated today in the 18th Conference of the International Association of Democratic Lawyers in Brussels. During her speech at the conference, she stated: “The suffering of the residents of the Gaza Strip is compounded by the eight-year-long policy of collective punishment practiced by the Israeli occupation, which tightens its comprehensive siege imposed on the Strip in its various security and economic aspects, closing crossings and preventing movement from the Strip to the West Bank and vice versa.”

She spoke about the state of Palestinian women’s rights under the current circumstances: “The Israeli policies imposed on the Palestinian people and the political division between the West Bank and the Gaza Strip have negatively affected the lives of women in the political, economic, and social fields, constituting compounding and overlapping factors. The reality is even more severe for them, stemming from their sense of family responsibility, where the direct negative effects are reflected on the family, or in terms of feeling helpless to change this reality, given their limited ability to make decisions in Palestinian policies, and the feeling of inability to achieve their social status and reach a society of equality and social justice, as it remains a very difficult and complex issue, due to the decline in the tools that support women and which are supposed to help them meet their needs, whether at the practical level to enhance their reproductive role or empower them to meet their needs at the strategic level as an essential partner for men in bearing the pressing circumstances at all levels and the burdens of daily concerns.”

Al-Ghunaimi emphasized that the system of laws applied in Palestine does not comply with gender justice and the concept of the rule of law, which stipulates that all citizens are equal before the law and the judiciary without discrimination based on sex, race, color, religion, belief, political opinion, or wealth, explaining that there are widespread violations of women’s rights contained in these laws and there are unfair dealings towards them when distributing opportunities. We find that this discrimination is based on sex and not based on the real role of both men and women in society. Undoubtedly, the absence of a unified Palestinian political system in all areas of the National Authority’s influence prevents the application of principles that support the elimination of discrimination against women.

She pointed out at the end of her speech that women in Palestine always aspire to build a democratic State of Palestine and end the Israeli military occupation, in order to enjoy fair and equal rights to the rights of men, as stipulated in the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women and other international human rights conventions. They also look forward to supporting women all over the world in their just causes to confront the injustice and discrimination against them.