Violence all around us : Dilemmas of global and local agendas addressing violence against Palestinian women, an initial intervention

Abstract

How do international human rights frameworks function in addressing violence against women in situations of prolonged political violence and colonial conflict? How do other voices, generated locally, take on, contest or interact with, these frameworks? These questions are addressed in the Palestinian context through examining two recent reports, the fi rst, a problematic November 2006 report by Human Rights Watch, A Question of Security: Violence Against Palestinian Women and Girls, and the second, a report issued in March 2007 by the Palestinian Violence Against Women Forum, a network of local Palestinian NGOs. Data from the fi rst Palestinian national survey on domestic violence (2005) are also scrutinized. Beginning with a specifi c incident of a recent honor crime in a Palestinian refugee camp, this initial intervention also probes the history of public debate research and activism on domestic violence in Palestine and argues for careful attention to the diversity of community responses.