Conflict-related violations against women, girls continue in Syria – UN
QAMISHLI, Syria (North Press) – Across Syria, women and girls continue to suffer under the repercussions of conflict-related violations, the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Syria said on Monday.
Lynn Welchman, member of the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Syria, said in remarks to webinar, “Women and girls continue to be affected by conflict-related violations, such as indiscriminate attacks, detention and enforced disappearance.”
Welchman added that due to the “protracted” conflict in the country, sexual and gender-based violence have recorded a spike and deprived women and girls of their right to “enjoy their most basic rights.”
She noted that 74 percent of women out of six million people across Syria are “in dire need of nutritional assistance.”
An estimated 92 percent of women-headed households, who are living in camps across the country, experience “insufficient ability or complete inability to meet basic needs” and let alone the “discriminatory treatment.”
Welchman stressed that “fear of stigmatization and its consequences” caused the violence against women and girls to become “more entrenched.”
As for early and forced marriages, she went further adding that with the aim of easing financial hardship resulting from the conflict, fear for family honor and increased sexual violence cases of such marriage have increased.
She highlighted that in Syria only 2-5 percent of women own residential property.
She noted that 56,000 people are living in “appalling conditions” in camps in northeast Syria such as Hawl and Roj, with over 37,000 foreigners from over 66 countries, with majority of them are widows and wives of Islamic State (ISIS). These women “face stigmatization and discrimination based on their husbands’ alleged ties to Da’esh.”
The ongoing armed conflict has intensified gender-related violence in Syria has led to a rise in rape cases, as well as instances of forced and child marriage.
Rape has become a common occurrence and sexual violence has been used by both the Syrian government and extremist jihadist groups to achieve their respective strategic goals. They use rape to spread ‘terror and humiliation to the population’, according to the UN’s Special Representative on Sexual Violence in Conflict.