Israel leads development of first UN toolkit on documenting terror-related sexual violence

Israel's Foreign Ministry has initiated and is leading the development of a guide designed to help emergency responders identify, document, and preserve evidence of sexual and gender-based violence at the sites of terrorist attacks.The 'Toolkit for First Emergency Responders in Sexual and Gender Based Violence Cases Linked to Terrorism', written alongside the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), will be the first of its kind.It was inspired by research by Prof. Yifat Biton, President of Achva Academic College, and the head of the RAIA Project - an Israeli research organization and advocacy group dedicated to combating sexual violence in terrorism contexts.Bitton was one of the key figures in "The Civil Commission on October 7 Crimes by Hamas against Women and Children," a group dedicated to exposing and documenting sexual crimes during those attacks. She also wrote the a 100-page report, "Challenges in Identifying and Documenting Sexual Crimes Committed During A Terrorist Attack," in 2024, which was later presented to diplomats and senior officials at the UN.Israel is partnering with the governments of Germany and Switzerland and Nigeria's National Counter Terrorism Center for the project.The goal of the new guide is to provide medical personnel, police officers, and emergency volunteers with practical tools to document crimes and preserve evidence that could help bring perpetrators to justice, while safeguarding survivors'…