Syrian Arab News Agency S A N A
Damascus/Aleppo, SANA – The General Women’s Union organized a sit-in on Wednesday in front of the UN headquarters in Damascus to protest all forms of violence against women on occasion of the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women.
In a statement delivered to the resident representative of the UN, the participants said that for five years, Syrian women have been exposed to horrifying forms of psychological and physical violence at the hands of terrorist organization, while the international community remains content to merely condemn such crimes.
The statement called for taking legal and political measure to protect women from violence and from human trafficking, as well as calling for formulating an international document to protect women’s civil, political, economic, social, cultural, and health rights.
The participants also called for establishing mechanisms to prosecute and incriminate all those who carry acts of violence against Syrian women and prosecute them at international criminal courts.
In statements, participants in the sit-in said the UN failed to take any position regarding the suffering of Syrian women due to the terrorism that was brought to Syria by some regional and Western states, and that this sit-in sends a message to the world to support Syrian women.
They said that the war imposed on Syria has affected all Syrians, particularly women, because terrorists use underhand and dirty tactics to pressure them, stressing that they expect serious positions and acts on the ground from the UN, instead of merely condemning or denouncing.
On the same occasion, the General Women’s Union branch in Aleppo organized a solidarity stand to protest terrorists’ practices against women in Syria, particularly minors.
The participants in the stand, which was held in front of the Aleppo branch of Al-Baath Party, called on the international community to take a stand that is fair to Syrian women and that ends terrorists’ crimes against them.
They also called for finding ways to help abused women on cultural, economic, health, and financial levels, as well as prosecuting and incriminating anyone who carries out acts of violence against women and considering them war criminals.
Hazem Sabbagh
