The United Nations omitted Hamas from its blacklist of state and non-state parties guilty of sexual violence in 2023, due to a lack of what it deemed to be credible evidence.
The blacklist was part of a larger annual report on sexual violence authored by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, which was completed this month and debated Tuesday at the UN Security Council.
Guterres’s April report described sexual violence in 18 conflict settings or situations of concern, including the Hamas-led October invasion of Israel and Russia’s war against Ukraine.
But it found that credible evidence that met UN criteria was strong enough in only 11 of those situations such that it could blacklist the responsible parties. Neither Hamas nor Russia were among those parties that met that criteria and were not included on the list.
Israel’s Foreign Minister Israel Katz said he was “disgusted” by the report in a statement released to the media, while the UNSC debate took place on what would have been the first day of Passover in the US.
'Secretary-General sides with Hamas'
Katz called it a “failure in a long series of failures” by the UN and its institutions, which had not once condemned Hamas for the October 7 attack in which over 1,200 people were killed and 253 hostages were seized.
“Guterres has turned the UN into an extremely antisemitic and anti-Israel institution during his tenure which will be remembered as the darkest in the organization’s history,” Katz said.
He added that he was convinced that if the UN had existed during the Holocaust and in the lead-up to it, and “if the crimes of the Nazis had come up for debate, he [Guterres] would have refused to denounce them if it suited his political interests.”
US Ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield welcomed the report and mentioned its inclusion of the Hamas-led October 7 attack when she addressed the UNSC on Tuesday.
“From Nigeria to Israel, Myanmar to Sudan, Haiti to the Democratic Republic of the Congo, we have seen terrorist groups, criminal gangs, and non-state armed groups abducting and sexually exploiting women and girls. We’ve seen rape being used as a tool of war.
“And I’ll note that the report calls for the release of the nearly 3,000 Yazidis who are still missing, as well as hostages kidnapped by Hamas and other terrorist groups from Israel on October 7. We know from UN reporting that many of these hostages have experienced sexual violence while in captivity,” she said.
But Thomas-Greenfield did not mention Hamas’s omission from the blacklist of perpetrators attached to the report.
In describing the October 7 attack, Guterres’s April report drew on information from a report published earlier this year that he had commissioned from Pramila Patten, who is his special representative on Sexual Violence in Conflict.
Patten’s report “found reasonable grounds to believe” that sexual violence-related violence occurred during the October 7 attack, including rape and gang rape.
She also received clear and convincing information that the hostages held in Gaza were subject to sexual violence.
Guterres’ April report referenced those points but noted that Patten’s research was limited and could not be considered a full-fledged investigation.
His April sexual violence report called for a full-fledged investigation to be held into the October 7 attack and the treatment of the hostages. The April report also addressed allegations of Israeli sexual violence against Palestinian detainees and prisoners, stating that the UN had confirmed acts of sexual assault, including threats of rape, kicking of genitals and stripping male detainees naked.
Guterres’s spokesperson Stephane Dujarric underscored for The Jerusalem Post that the list of credible parties responsible for sexual violence attached to the report, dubbed the blacklist, was “based on UN verified information.”
“This is why we are saying that such a determination would require a fully-fledged investigation, which the report calls for.
“It’s also important to remember that the report is produced based on a very specific Security Council mandate and that the information contained has to meet certain criteria,” he explained.
“That being said, the Secretary-General has been very clear calling out Hamas and condemning the acts of terror, including the sexual violence that occurred on 7 October.”
The 18 countries Guterres referenced in his report in which sexual violence had occurred, were: Afghanistan, the Central African Republic, Columbia, the Congo, Ethiopia, Haiti, Iraq, Israel, Libya, Mali, Myanmar, Nigeria, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, Syrian Arab Republic, Ukraine, and Yemen.
Those situations where responsible parties were omitted from the blacklist included: Afghanistan, Columbia, Ethiopia, Israel, Libya, Ukraine, and Yemen.
'Guterres shames his position'
CEO of the Association of Assistance Centers for Victims of Sexual Assault, Orit Sulitzeanu, commented on Guterres's move on Wednesday and deemed his decision "cruel."
"In this decision, the UN Secretary-General legitimizes Hamas, which has committed crimes against humanity, and thereby abandons the dozens of hostages who are currently still suffering from abuse and vulnerability," she stated.
"This is a slap in the face to basic humanity and humanitarianism and to all the women and men who are now being tortured in the Hamas tunnels. Guterres shames his position and the entire UN organization," Sulitzeanu concluded.