Two exceptional meetings were held at the UN with the **R.A.I.A Project** team. The first meeting was attended by dozens of staff members from various embassies, especially those responsible for gender equality issues. The second meeting was a professional briefing for police and military attachés from many countries, who came for an in-depth briefing on the deadly terrorist attack that occurred in Israel on October 7. This attack, unprecedented in its scope and brutality in Israel, shocked the entire world not only due to the scale of the killings and torturing, but also because of the severe sexual crimes committed during it against women and even men, within the territory of a democratic, liberal, and strong country.
During the briefings, the findings of the report and insights gathered from the field were presented, focusing on the challenges in identifying, documenting, and recognizing sexual crimes committed as part of a terrorist attack. The hall was filled with deep attention, a testament to the genuine desire of representatives of the international community to understand, learn, and prepare. The dialogue that developed in the professional meeting with the military and police attachés particularly highlighted the urgent need to formulate international protocols and procedures that ensure a rapid, sensitive, and effective response in such extreme situations — even in countries whose strength might mislead regarding their preparedness, as happened in Israel.
These meetings are an important step in our struggle for international recognition of the sexual crimes committed not only as serious offenses in themselves but as a new tool in a focused and swift terrorist attack, aimed at damaging the social and national fabric of its victims. Israel has a leading role in this discourse, given our bitter experience, which can generate critical international impact in dealing with the phenomenon.
