Justice for Palestinian Women Demands End to Occupation, Reparations, Accountability, Experts Tell Rights Committee

Justice for Palestinian Women Demands End to Occupation, Reparations, Accountability, Experts Tell Rights Committee

Palestinian women's rights cannot be separated from their struggle for liberation from Israeli occupation, the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People heard today in a conversation that ranged from tackling laws designed to discriminate to ensuring reparations for war crimes.

Today's meeting on "Discriminatory Laws and Policies against Palestinian Women and Girls under Israeli Occupation: Justice Demands Accountability" was held on the margins of the seventieth session of the Commission on the Status of Women at United Nations Headquarters. However, four of the participants spoke by video from the Occupied Palestinian Territories, due to a combination of United States visa restrictions on Palestinian passports, and the unpredictable airspace in the Middle East.

"I am speaking to you today" from "a Gaza Strip that is without justice", Amal Syam, Director of the civil society organization Women Affairs Centre, said, addressing the gendered impact of the war on Gaza. Access to justice requires a fair legislative environment and supportive social and economic structures so that women can enjoy their rights without fear of destruction or displacement. But international laws and human rights conventions failed to protect the 33,000 women, including 9,000 mothers, killed by Israel, or the hundreds of thousands who now live in overcrowded, unsanitary camps, she said.

From Navigating 'Obsolete' Systems to Providing Birth Certificates: Palestinian Women on the Frontlines

Israel's occupation has also prevented the standardization of laws between the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, she pointed out. While Jordanian law 61 of 1976 and the penal code of 1936 are in effect in the former, the latter follows the family law issued by the Egyptian Administration in 1954. These "old and obsolete legal systems" cannot protect the rights of Palestinian women in 2026, she said.

Women's organizations such as hers are still working on the frontlines, providing documentation - including birth certificates, phone helplines and legal consultations. They continued working through the displacement and destruction, "even as courts were destroyed", she said. The judicial vacuum created by the destruction has resulted in widespread use of mediation. It is being used in displacement camps, and "even under the rubble", she noted, adding that it is crucial to provide legal guarantees for such solutions. Documenting Israeli violations is another crucial aspect of justice, and victim testimonies will be important for prosecuting war criminals and providing redress for victims.

Time for Accountability, Gender-Sensitive Reparations

The Committee also heard from two human rights lawyers who addressed access to justice and accountability, including through reparations and restitutions.

Sawsan Zaher, speaking from Haifa, stressed that the Israeli legal system was intentionally created to allow for impunity, as repeatedly demonstrated through various military campaigns against Palestinians in the Occupied Territories. It has never been neutral.

Citing several specific cases that failed to bring about accountability, she declared: "The system is basically built to defend any operation of the [Israeli] army." Grave violations that continue to go unpunished include rape, taking humiliating pictures of women and their intimate clothing and looting Palestinian homes. Meanwhile, she said, the Israeli High Court, the only body able to provide judicial review over the Army, refuses to engage with international fact-finding missions or intervene in such cases.

Speaking from Ramallah, human rights lawyer Lina Fattom highlighted the need for reparations - a mechanism well-enshrined in international law to restore a situation to how it would have been without the wrongful act. The primary form of reparations has been "restitution", and this can take many forms, including the return of people to their land. When restitution is not available, it can take the shape of compensation and rehabilitation - including medical, psychological and legal - among others.

She went on to detail the many different types of violations in the West Bank and identify possible reparations. For instance, reparations for the violation of the right of return are restitution, compensation for losses and guarantees of non-repetition. "While reparations can happen during a peace treaty, they can also happen through justice mechanisms such as courts," she pointed out, adding that third States can and must enable Palestinians access to justice through international or State-based courts.

Reparations must be gender-sensitive and consider the heightened harm women and girls experience in occupation, she added. Loss of property disproportionately affects them because they often bear the burden of maintaining families. They also face increased risk of sexual violence and exploitation during displacement and detention.

Mona Al-Khalil, Minister for Women's Affairs for the State of Palestine, stressed that Palestinian women have always been a fundamental pillar of resilience as mothers, community leaders, teachers and healers. In the current Israeli aggression, "daily life for Palestinian women has become much more difficult, while the responsibilities within families and societies have multiplied". Women's economic empowerment is one of the "key elements of Palestinian society's recovery", she said.

'No' to Invisibility: Empower Palestinian Women, Shape a Resilient Future

Her Government's comprehensive emergency plan goes beyond a humanitarian response to strengthen economic empowerment. It is working to restore women's income sources, support women-led economic initiatives, enhance access to economic services, and expand skills training, with a target of increasing women's participation in the labour market from 17 per cent today to 22 per cent by 2030.

The Government is also pushing for legal reforms that would strengthen women's legal rights and the principle of equality - including in a draft Justice in Labour Law and legislation to ensure rapid and effective interventions in cases of domestic violence. "The empowerment and protection of the Palestinian women must also be an integral part of any international response to the crisis," she said.

Along similar lines, Carol Daniel-Kasbari, Senior Associate Director for Conflict Resolution at the Carter Center, stressed the need to bring a gender lens to current political initiatives for the reconstruction of Gaza. This is not just about including women, but about helping them have a real voice in shaping the future, she said. She cited a recently released Palestinian detainee who described feeling as through she "had disappeared into a system where no one could see or hear us". "That invisibility is, in itself, a form of discrimination," she said.

She detailed how detention, movement restrictions and loss of documents impact Palestinian women in ways that are both political and personal. "Losing papers is not symbolic," she said - without records, people cannot prove land ownership, unify family members or access public services. For female-headed households, this causes prolonged legal uncertainty. The implementation of General Assembly resolution ES-10/24 is key because it will impact how political and administrative arrangements are designed, she said. It will shape the institutions that shape recovery and if the gender lens is ignored, "inequalities risk being built into the system".

'Palestinians Don't Give Up'

Pendapala Andreas Naanda (Namibia), Vice-Chair of the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People, said: "As long as Palestinian women have to live according to the whims of the Israeli occupation, their rights will not be realized." Their access to justice is directly linked to the establishment of an independent Palestinian State.

Riyad H. Mansour, the Permanent Observer of the State of Palestine, thanked all participants for their scholarship, activism and solidarity. Highlighting the creativity of Palestinian resistance to occupation, he said the decision to approach the International Court of Justice was critical because it meant the Palestinian question became a legal question.

The advisory opinions issued by that Court mean that third States can do a lot to bring the war criminals to justice and "break the backbone of this illegal occupation", he said. "It is nice to tell me that you reaffirm the rights of Palestinians to self-determination, but it is nicer to add to it practical steps," he said. "Learn from us," he added - Palestinians don't give up.

He also said it was shameful that Palestinian women leaders were denied visas to come to the United States and participate in the Commission on the Status of Women.

Indeed, third States must fulfil their obligations of "non-recognition, non-assistance and positive duty to act", Guyana's delegate stressed in the discussion in which several representatives of Member States spoke. She reminded delegates that "we must not see reparations as a bad word". The Observer for the League of Arab States also urged the Committee to take up the question of reparations, noting that the European Union has been given permission by the General Assembly to confiscate the Russian Federation's assets in its territory and direct them towards reparations for Ukraine.