Israel Leads First International Guide on Evidence of Sexual Crimes in Terror Attacks

Israel's Foreign Ministry announced on Wednesday that it initiated and is leading the writing of a first-of-its-kind international guide to help emergency teams identify, document and preserve evidence of sexual and gender-based violence at the scenes of terror attacks. The guide is being drafted with the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), and the governments of Germany and Switzerland and Nigeria's National Counter-Terrorism Centre have joined the project as partners. According to the ministry, the guide will give medical teams, police officers and emergency volunteers practical tools to record such crimes and keep evidence that can help bring those responsible to justice, while protecting victims' safety, dignity and privacy and making sure they receive suitable care and support. "This project expresses international diplomacy at its best," said Sarah Weiss-Maudi, the ministry's Special Envoy for Women, Peace and Security. She added that Israel is proud to share its experience and also to learn from experts around the world working in the field. The initiative grew out of research by Prof. Yifat Bitton, president of Achva Academic College, and the RAIA group on the lessons of the October 7 massacre and on the difficulty of handling sexual crimes deliberately built into terror attacks. Bitton is an official member of the international expert team formed to draft the guide. Weiss-Maudi represented the ministry at the team's expert meeting in Abuja, Nigeria, on 20-21 October, which brought together specialists from several countries, among them field practitioners from Nigeria and Mali, ahead of the guide's completion. She said October 7 and the world's disregard of the crimes Hamas committed against Israeli women and men showed her why it mattered to go to Nigeria as well, where she condemned the terror of Boko Haram and other groups, including brutal sexual and gender-based crimes, and expressed solidarity with survivors and victims. The ministry said the guide is expected to enter use among international aid organizations, including UN agencies, as early as the start of 2027.