Jordan NGOs Forum (JONAF), Jordanian National Council For Women (JNCW), and the Arab Renaissance for Democracy and Development called on the joint donors to Women’s Peace and Humanitarian Fund and JONAP to support the activation of the United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325 (2000) on Women, Peace, and Security in Support of Women in Palestine
Following is the letter
Excellency Aranzazu Banon, Ambassador of Spain to Jordan
Excellency Bridget Brind Ambassador of United Kingdom to Jordan
Excellency Donica Pottie, Ambassador of Canada to Jordan
Excellency Matti Lassila, Ambassador of Finland to Jordan
Excellency Tone Elizabeth Baekkevold Allers, Ambassador of Norway to Jordan
Members of the Jordan NGOs Forum (JONAF) coalition and the Jordanian National Commission for Women, along with many human rights activists and civil society organizations in Jordan, call upon the international community and supporters of women’s rights to activate immediately Article 9 of the United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325 (UNSCR 1325) to protect the rights of women, children and men in Gaza and the occupied Palestinian territories.
As innocent civilians are being killed by excessive retaliatory measures by the Israeli military, let us be reminded that Article 9 of UNSCR 1325 “calls upon all parties to armed conflict to respect fully international law applicable to the rights and protection of women and girls, especially as civilians, in particular the obligations applicable to them under the Geneva Conventions of 1949 and the Additional Protocols thereto of 1977, the Refugee Convention of 1951 and the Protocol thereto of 1967, the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women of 1979 and the Optional Protocol thereto of 1999 and the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child of 1989 and the two Optional Protocols thereto of 25 May 2000, and to bear in mind the relevant provisions of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court”.
UNSCR 1325 on Women, Peace, and Security is based on four main pillars: participation, protection, prevention, and relief and recovery. For the past 73 years, we have seen our Palestinian sisters facing oppression every day, getting beaten up and arrested for practicing their right to peaceful protests to protect themselves and their families from displacement.
UNSCR 1325 also stresses the need to include – and thus empower – local women in conflict resolution. As the conflict and occupation continue, and the suffering of Palestinian refugees worsens, it is essential to recognize resistance as a human right and as a means to achieve comprehensive and just peace based on women’s and men’s political agency. It is time to do more than just having nominal women representation, with no real participation. To achieve just solutions, the value of women leading the resistance against systematic oppression must be acknowledged.
UNSCR 1325 is in danger as long as we, in Jordan, as institutions and activists cannot contribute to attaining peace in our region and to protecting its women and girls, including Palestinian women and children. The aggression against our sisters in Palestine today threatens to render void the meaning of UNSCR 1325.
We call on donor states, the secretary-general of the UN and UN Women to adopt a gender-sensitive approach to adopt consistent and sensitive approaches enabling accountability and ensuring the protection of human rights of women and children in Palestine, in accordance with the protection principles enshrined in UNSCR 1325. Conflicts are not a choice for civilians who endure them and do not distinguish among nationalities. Without a serious commitment to protecting the rights of women and children in Palestine, the credibility of UNSCR 1325 and its national iteration through JONAP is at risk.
We furthermore call on the international community to work toward ending conflicts and occupation, and preserving the safety and security of Palestinians, and to hold Israel accountable for its violations of international law, for war crimes and for the discrimination and ethnic cleansing committed against Palestinians since 1948. We urge the donor governments which support and fund human rights and gender justice programs to revisit their foreign policy. Silence in the face of Zionist atrocities in Palestine contradicts the values that those countries support and fund in our country. We call upon the international community to take a strong position against the actions of the Zionist entity as they have done in similar cases in the past, imposing sanctions and to stop providing Israeli military with weapons that are used against the Palestinian People.
We call on them to support the civil society in Palestine to increase its independent participation led by women, support UNRWA to protect Palestinian refugees, and help them reach a just and comprehensive solution that protects their dignity and the right to return to their homes and land from which they have been expelled since 1948.
With much gratitude and appreciation,
Salma Nims
Secretary-General
Jordanian National Commission for Women
Samar Muhareb
Chief Executive Officer
Arab Renaissance for Democracy and Development (ARDD)
The Jordan NGOs Forum (JONAF)
