Lahore, Pakistan: The Women in Law Initiative Pakistan has released a ‘draft call for action for ceasefire and lasting peace in Palestine’.
This draft has been prepared as a follow up endeavour out of the conference on ‘Women in Times of War: The Role of Female Lawyers’ held last year on December 13, 2022 in Poland.
Nida Usman Chaudhary, founder of Women in Law Initiative Pakistan and one of the speakers at the conference in Poland last year, while speaking about this call for action said,
“Female lawyers came together last year primarily in wake of the Russia-Ukraine context but also discussed the role of women in peacebuilding in Africa and elsewhere. We committed to explore ways to carry on our work and role as female lawyers and as women to lend our voices and support for women in times of war but also generally as professionals to see how the international humanitarian laws and procedures can be improved to ensure greater access of victims and survivors to justice, rights and remedies.
Unfortunately, barely 11 months on another catastrophic and indiscriminate militarized onslaught of hostilities is taking place in Gaza and Lebanon as we speak and has been going on since over a month now resulting in massacre of around 10,000 Palestinian people nearly half of which are children, taking of around 200 hostages by Hamas, spillover violence, racism and murders in wake of increased islamophobia and antisemitism, blockade and destruction of sources of livelihood and depleting access to food, medical supplies and clean drinking water. The calls for ceasefire have been falling on to deaf ears raising questions over the efficacy of the international legal order. As lawyers, human rights defenders and those who work on international law, it is imperative that we join the voices demanding immediate ceasefire and urge others within our sphere of influence to do the same. The call for action sets out at least 13 demands we hope that our colleagues all over the world will raise within their spheres of influence with the hope that even if one of us is able to succeed in reaching the relevant authority figures in our countries, regions or global forums, we may see ceasefire and other steps towards lasting peace in Palestine being taken.”
So far the support for peace in Palestine and this global call for action has poured in from Maldives, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, the UK and UAE. The draft document will remain open for comments, endorsements and adoption until November 16, 2023.
The draft can be accessed here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Ugjhn6eICLhQ_mo7fpKvdj1n_kpZNkgMc5YioSnrWGY/edit?usp=sharing
Link to tweet: https://x.com/WomenInLawPk/status/1721503048688955501?s=20
Image by hosny salah from Pixabay [Palestinian photographer currently living in Palestine Gaza Strip]
