by JNS Staff
An Israeli law professor who released a report about Hamas’s heinous crimes is leading the international expert team to develop the guide.
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| The international team established to develop a guide on how to document evidence of sexual violence at terrorist attack scenes, attended by Israeli envoy Sarah Weiss Maudi, in Abuja, Nigeria, Oct. 20-21, 2026. Credit: The U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC). |
Israel’s Foreign Ministry is drafting a first-of-its-kind international guide designed to help emergency response teams identify, document and preserve evidence of sexual and gender-based violence at the scenes of terrorist attacks, the ministry’s spokesperson said on Wednesday.
Israel is leading the project alongside Germany, Switzerland and Nigeria’s National Counter Terrorism Centre, while the guide is being written in cooperation with the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC).
The guide was inspired by research conducted by the RAIA Project, an Israeli research group devoted to combat sexual violence in terrorist attacks and led by professor Yifat Bitton, which examined the lessons of the Hamas-led Oct. 7, 2023, massacre in the northwestern Negev.
Bitton is an official member of the expert team established to develop the guide.
Last month, Israeli Special Envoy for Women, Peace and Security Sarah Weiss Maudi represented the Foreign Ministry at a two-day experts’ meeting on the subject in Nigeria’s capital, Abuja. The meeting on Oct. 20-21 brought together experts from around the world, including professionals from Nigeria and Mali.
“The bitter experience of October 7 and the world’s disregard for the crimes Hamas committed against Israeli women and men have made me realize how important it is to also reach out to Nigeria, unequivocally condemn the terrorism of Boko Haram and other organizations, which involves brutal sexual and gender-based crimes, and express solidarity with survivors and victims,” said Maudi.
“This project embodies international diplomacy at its best: countries sharing expertise and professional, practical approaches in order to support those affected and help secure justice for them and their families,” the statement continued.
“Israel is proud to contribute its experience, and also to learn from experts around the world who are doing sacred work in this field,” the envoy said.
Boko Haram is a Sunni jihadist militant organization based in northeastern Nigeria, founded in 2002. Aiming to overthrow the country’s secular government and replace it with an Islamic state governed by sharia law, the terrorist group has carried out violent raids, suicide bombings and mass kidnappings, targeting civilians.
The international guide is intended to provide medical personnel, police officers and emergency volunteers with practical tools for documenting acts of sexual violence, the foreign ministry said.
The guide can help bring those responsible to justice, while safeguarding survivors’ and victims’ safety, dignity and privacy, and ensuring they receive appropriate care and assistance, according to the ministry.
It is expected to be adopted by international aid organizations, including U.N. agencies, as early as the beginning of 2027.
Detailed report about Hamas’s sexual crimes
In January 2025, Bitton spoke with JNS about the report she had recently released on the sexual violence Hamas committed on Oct. 7, 2023.
The Israeli law professor lamented the United Nations’ initial silence about the sorts of sexual crimes that Hamas committed on Oct. 7 and detailed by her work.
“Due to the fact that my report was methodological and completed by an independent agent like myself as an expert in the field with a team of lawyers, who are not just Israeli feminists but global feminists, I was hopeful that the report would get more positive attention than was initially expected,” Bitton said at the time.
“It is heartwarming to have seen that happen in real time,” she said. “It was important for them to understand the new trends of terrorism that are not particular to Israelis and Palestinians.”
“If it happened in Israel and we weren’t prepared for it, it can happen to other countries too,” she added.
The report drew on interviews with 40 first and secondary responders, who identified victims on that day and thereafter.
JNS Staff
Source: https://www.jns.org/news/israel-news/israels-oct-7-lessons-help-draft-un-guide-on-sexual-violence-committed-by-terrorists
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