Ashrawi calls for stronger penalties for violence against women
PLO executive committee member Hanan Ashrawi on Tuesday condemned two recent fatal incidents of domestic violence, calling for harsher penalties for violence against women.
"The law must unequivocally penalize those guilty of femicide and must ensure the passing of the maximum sentences for such heinous crimes," she said in a statement.
Ashrawi's statements come in response to the deaths of two 18-year-old women in the Gaza Strip at the hands of male family members in recent weeks. The total number of victims of "femicide" -- which usually refers to domestic violence against women -- in the West Bank and Gaza in 2013 amounted to 28.
"Such a rise in the killing of women results from the absence of law that ensures the safety and protection of women, the lack of sufficient legal mechanisms and frameworks to hold criminals accountable for their crimes, and the leniency in sentencing them," the statement quoted Ashrawi as saying.
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