Women in Israel and Palestine have consistently been leaders in the process to bring peace to the Middle East, including by demonstrating against the occupation on International Women’s Day in March 2015. Damaged infrastructure, reduced services, food insecurity and displacement caused by the occupation and subsequent conflicts have had a particular impact on women, notably in the marginalized Palestinian territories.

Neither Israel nor Palestine has a National Action Plan on Women, Peace and Security as per Resolution 1325, and although both are parties to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), significant obstacles remain to gender equality— including outdated personal status laws that are still enforced in both areas. Despite the frequency with which the Security Council discusses the situation in the Middle East, the gendered aspects of violence against civilians and its effects on women and girls has never been debated within the Council.

Based on the work of NGOWG members and their partners, the NGOWG advocates for remedying this discrepancy by calling for the effective and meaningful inclusion of women in all actions taken by the United Nations Truce Supervision Organization (UNTSO). The Council should further ensure a focus on women’s rights and gender issues in all aspects of current and ongoing peace and security processes in Israel and Palestine.