"The UN’s special representative on sexual violence in conflict Pramila Patten pulled out of a Security Council session where she was supposed to brief members about the hostages taken by Hamas on October 7, a UN diplomat told The Times of Israel on Tuesday.
Invitations to the Thursday event organized by the United States Mission the United Nations were sent to Security Council members last week and obtained by The Times of Israel. The session is titled ‘Condemning hostage taking in Israel on October 7 as a psychological tool of terrorism.’
Patten — the UN special representative whose purview most closely overlaps with the topic — was named as the first of three briefers along with a civil society representative and a released Israeli hostage or relative of a hostage.
But in the updated invitations — or ‘concept notes’ — sent out to members on Monday and also obtained by The Times of Israel, Patten was no longer listed among the briefers.
A UN diplomat said on condition of anonymity that Patten’s withdrawal was not due to scheduling issues.
The diplomat hinted that the decision was politically motivated, as her office has faced pressure not to be seen as prioritizing the plight of the Israeli hostages over that of the Palestinians caught in the middle of Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza.
Patten’s office did not respond to repeated requests for comment.
Organizers are still working to secure the attendance of a different senior UN official to brief Security Council members instead of Patten, the UN diplomat said.
Thursday’s event will be an informal one, after the Security Council already held a formal hearing in March to discuss the report compiled by Patten, which found that there was ‘clear and convincing information’ to indicate that hostages held captive in Gaza were subjected to ‘sexual violence including rape, sexualized torture, cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment.’
But the US mission organized Thursday’s session to raise additional awareness regarding the issue, as it has repeatedly criticized the international community for not paying sufficient attention to the plight of the remaining 132 hostages and to the crimes perpetrated by Hamas.
The meeting ‘will focus on the demand that Hamas and other armed groups immediately and unconditionally release all hostages being held in Gaza,’ reads the invitation...
Last month, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres declined to include Hamas in a report compiled by his office on organizations suspected of committing acts of sexual violence during conflict, infuriating Israel.
The document, titled ‘Conflict-related sexual violence,’ and published as a ‘Report of the Secretary-General,’ noted there is evidence that sex crimes were committed during the Palestinian terror group Hamas’s devastating October 7 attack on Israel, but did not specifically attribute responsibility to Hamas..."