United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has warned Israel about potentially listing the country’s armed forces in an upcoming UN report on sexual violence, according to the spokesperson for Israel’s mission to the UN.
“I am putting Israeli armed and security forces on notice for potential listing in the next reporting cycle, due to significant concerns of patterns of certain forms of sexual violence that have been consistently documented by the United Nations,” Guterres wrote in the letter sent to Danny Danon, Israel’s ambassador to the UN, on Monday.
The UN’s Office of the Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Sexual Violence in Conflict publishes an annual report titled Conflict-Related Sexual Violence, in which it documents sexual violence committed in armed conflict.
Guterres’ letter to Danon, which was shared by Israel’s mission to the UN, said the UN is concerned about “credible information of violations by Israeli armed and security forces, perpetrated against Palestinians in several prisons, a detention center and military base.”
“Due to consistent denial of access to United Nations monitors,” the letter said, “it has been challenging to make a definitive determination regarding patterns, trends and systematicity of sexual violence in these situations.”
