Beyond Swords: Law, Order and (In) Security

The second session of the symposium Beyond Swords: Reconceptualizing (In)Security in the Aftermath of October 7th focused on the legal system (local and international) as an essential social institution for establishing a sense of security and creating a safe reality.
The two lectures at the session examined this question in the context of confronting the acts of sexual violence that took place on October 7th and asked: What connections exist between the Justice System and individuals’ sense of security? Between the Justice System and the perception of national security? How was a consensus created around a narrative of desertion and even betrayal by "the world", including the UN, international human rights bodies, and women's organizations regarding the acts of sexual violence? To what extent can the international human rights system, in its current form, meet the expectation of promoting security through doing justice on the subject of sexual abuse? How can the systemic difficulties related to dealing with the issue of sexual abuse - criminal law, substantive law, and the rules of evidence - be overcome in a way that reflects their essence and gravity, and achieve justice for the living as well as for the dead?
The session was chaired by Dr. Tamar Megiddo, a senior lecturer in the Department of International Relations at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
This video includes the two lectures in the session:
The Great Desertion: The Sexual Violence of October 7th and the (partial?) Failure of the International Human Rights Framework Prof. Ruth Halperin-Kaddari, Bar Ilan University and the Dinah Project
Conflict-Related Sexual Violence: The Problem of Attribution. Judge (ret.) Nava Ben-Or and Colonel IDF (res.) Adv Sharon Zagagi Pinhas, Forner Chief Military Prosecutor, the Dinah Project
Beyond Swords: Reconceptualizing (In)Security in the Aftermath of October 7th is a symposium that took place on June 18-19 2024 and was organized by the Sophie Davis Forum on Gender, Conflict Resolution and Peace, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem.