Hadassah, the Women’s Zionist Organization of America, together with 27 Jewish and Israeli human rights organizations, called on the United Nations, in a letter last week, to recognize Hamas’s use of sexual violence as a weapon of war.
The organizations warned of what they described as growing efforts from the UN to deny Hamas’s weaponization of sexual violence against the hostages abducted during the October 7, 2023, massacre.
Accusing the UN of downplaying or dismissing documented evidence, these denial efforts, they wrote in the letter, send “a dangerous message to Hamas and other terrorists that it can act with impunity in harming civilians."
The letter pointed specifically to statements made by Reem Alsalem, the UN Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women and Girls.
“Just this month, the UN Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women and Girls, Reem Alsalem, denied the legitimacy of the UN’s own investigation into Hamas’ weaponization of sexual violence,” the authors of the letter wrote, noting that Alsalem had “falsely claimed that 'no independent investigation found that rape took place on October 7."
UN urged to list Hamas for systematic sexual violence crimes
Sent out ahead of the UN’s annual 16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence, the letter was directed to UN Secretary-General António Guterres, UN Special Representative on Sexual Violence in Conflict Pramila Patten, and Sima Bahous, the Executive Director of UN Women.
The authors cited multiple investigations, including UN probes that documented Hamas’s use of sexual violence, as proof of negligence from the organ to officially recognize the proven violent acts.
They highlighted a 2024 investigation led by Patten, which found a “pattern of naked, often bound female bodies, some bearing execution-style gunshot wounds to the head.” The findings of the investigation “strongly suggested a systematic pattern of sexual violence used to terrorize, subjugate, and inflict suffering.”
The signatories urged the UN to take concrete action “to hold Hamas accountable for crimes against humanity, including by listing Hamas in the Annex to the annual Secretary General Report on Sexual Violence in Conflict, and establish and promote a comprehensive international protocol for states to respond to conflict-related sexual violence when it occurs.”
They reiterated this demand, calling on the UN to “list Hamas in the Annex to the next annual report by the Secretary General on Sexual Violence in Conflict for its continued weaponization of sexual violence against the hostages, including male hostages, while it held them in detention.”
The organizations also appealed to the UN Security Council “to consider and pass a resolution designating Hamas as a terrorist organization,” mainly after several countries already did so.
In addition, they called for the creation of “a singular, comprehensive international protocol, such as those in the Murad Code, that explicitly outlines best practices for countries responding to conflict-related sexual violence events.”
Such a protocol, the authors wrote, should include guidelines “for the collection, preservation and analysis of forensic evidence, effective reporting mechanisms, and trauma-informed care for survivors of conflict-related sexual violence.”
As the main goal, the letter was intended to be a wake-up call to the UN, in order to promote further developments into recognizing sexual crimes as a worldwide war weapon that needs to be recognized and properly punished.