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| Special Rapporteur Richard Falk. UN Photo/Jess Hoffman |
20 July
2012 – A United Nations independent human rights expert today condemned
Israel’s use of solitary confinement against Palestinian children, and urged
the Israeli Government to treat such detainees in accordance with international
human rights laws.
“Israel’s
use of solitary confinement against children flagrantly violates international
human rights standards,” the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human
rights in the occupied Palestinian territories, Richard Falk, said in a news release.
“However,
using solitary confinement as a punishment for Palestinian children who wish to
peacefully protest their situation, including by commencing a hunger strike
against conditions of detention, is an appalling abuse of child prisoners,” he
added. “I again condemn Israel’s harsh arrest operations and procedures.”
Mr. Falk’s
comments came in the wake of earlier concerns on the issue, raised today by the
UN Special Committee on Israeli practices in the Occupied Territories, at the
end of a fact-finding mission to Jordan, Egypt and the Gaza Strip.
“According
to testimony received, Israel uses solitary confinement against 12 per cent of
Palestinian child detainees,” the Special Committee’s Chairperson, Ambassador
Palitha T.B. Kohona of Sri Lanka, said in a news release. “This is especially troubling
when one considers that Israel arrests about 500 to 700 Palestinian children
every year.”
The Special
Committee also warned that a pattern of detaining and mistreating children
“links to broader, longstanding concerns regarding Israel detention of
Palestinians generally.”
“Witnesses
informed the Committee that mistreatment of Palestinian children starts from
the moment of detention,” Mr. Kohona said. “Large numbers are routinely
detained. Children’s homes are surrounded by Israeli soldiers late at night,
sound grenades are fired into the houses, doors are broken down, live shots are
often fired; no warrant is presented. Children are tightly bound, blindfolded
and forced into the backs of military vehicles.”
The Special
Committee head said that parents are not allowed to accompany the detainees,
and that family members are insulted, intimidated and at times physically
assaulted. According to witnesses, the detention and transfer of children can
last for hours, and can often include stops in Israeli settlements, Israeli
checkpoints and police or military bases.
“This
pattern of abuse by Israel is grave,” said Special Rapporteur Falk. “It is
inhumane, cruel, degrading, and unlawful, and, most worryingly, it is likely to
adversely affect the mental and physical health of underage detainees.”
The Special
Rapporteur appealed to the Government of Israel to take urgent steps to bring
their treatment of Palestinian children detainees into line with international
human rights laws, in particular the Convention on the Rights of the Child,
which spells out the basic human rights that children everywhere have.
In its
preliminary observations in the wake of its fact-finding mission, the Special
Committee drew attention to two further areas of immediate concern in the West
bank, including East Jerusalem: the Israeli practice of demolishing Palestinian
homes, and violence by Israeli settlers against Palestinians.
The Special
Committee also assessed the economic impact of the Israeli blockade on the Gaza
Strip.
“These
Israeli practices lead the Special Committee to one over-arching and deeply
troubling conclusion,” Mr. Kohona said. “The mass imprisonment of Palestinians;
the routine demolition of homes and the displacement of Palestinians; the
widespread violence by Israeli settlers against Palestinians; and the blockade
and resultant reliance on illegal smuggling to survive; these practices amount
to a strategy to either force the Palestinian people off their land or so
severely marginalize them as to establish and maintain a system of permanent
oppression.”
The Special
Committee will present a mission report to the UN General Assembly in November,
with its observations and recommendations to improve the human rights
situation.
Independent
experts, or special rapporteurs, are appointed by the Geneva-based Council to
examine and report back on a country situation or a specific human rights
theme. The positions are honorary and the experts are not United Nations staff,
nor are they paid for their work.
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