[News] International Human Rights Day - Restoring Faith in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights

[Anti-Imperialist News]

http://www.addameer.org/news/international-human-rights-day-restoring-faith-universal-declaration-human-rights 
<http://www.addameer.org/news/international-human-rights-day-restoring-faith-universal-declaration-human-rights> 



  International Human Rights Day - Restoring Faith in the Universal
  Declaration of Human Rights

December 10, 2020
------------------------------------------------------------------------

The International Human Rights Day commemorates the day the United 
Nations General Assembly adopted the Universal Declaration of Human 
Rights (UDHR) on 10 December 1948. It is a reminder that this 
international document, recognized as the cornerstone of human rights, 
guarantees the universality of human rights to which every human being 
is entitled to, notwithstanding race, color, religion, sex, political 
opinion, or any other indifferences.

On this day, Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association 
urges the international community to re-establish its legal and moral 
commitment to reclaim and foster the protection of Palestinian human 
rights within the larger framework of the right to self-determination. 
Addameer further urges the international community to take a stand and 
end the impunity of the Israeli occupation's grave breaches of human 
rights and injustices practiced against the Palestinian people.

*Article 3:*

*/"Right to life, liberty, and security of person."/*

The prolonged Israeli occupation as an apartheid regime is a menace to 
the Palestinian people's integral rights to life, dignity, and security 
of person protected under Article 3 of the UDHR. This apartheid 
apparatus continues to commit crimes that deeply shock humanity's 
consciousness for the sole purpose of delegitimizing, oppressing, 
gaining, and maintaining control over Palestinians. Not even a week ago, 
on 4 December 2020, the Israeli Occupation Forces killed a 15-year-old 
Palestinian boy 
<https://www.dci-palestine.org/israeli_forces_shoot_and_kill_15_year_old_palestinian_boy> after 
shooting him with live ammunition in the abdomen during a protest in 
Al-Mughayyir village in the West Bank. According to reports, the boy was 
only observing the protest and was not taking part in it.

*Article 9:*

*/"No one shall be subjected to arbitrary arrest, detention, or exile."/*

Addameer fully acknowledges the unified cause of all Palestinian 
political prisoners as they carry the same burden; suffering through the 
same horrendous conditions and fighting a joint battle for dignity and 
liberty. Israeli military orders have legitimized repression with legal 
language that intervenes in many aspects of Palestinians' daily lives. 
Military orders have criminalized many forms of political and cultural 
expression, association, movement, and nonviolent protest, even certain 
traffic offenses and any other acts that might be considered opposing 
the occupation and its policies.

Consequently, no one is exempt from the Israeli occupation's various 
forms of arbitrary arrest and detention, including women, children, the 
elderly, and human rights defenders. As of October 2020, the number of 
Palestinian prisoners and detainees in Israeli prisons reached nearly 
4,500 prisoners, including 40 female prisoners, while the number of 
child detainees reached 170 child prisoners. Moreover, in October 2020, 
the Israeli occupation issued 68 administrative detention orders, 
including 38 new orders and 30 renewed orders.

The administrative detention policy is a stark violation of the UDHR, 
which prohibits the arbitrary arrest, detention, or exile of any person 
under Article 9. Israel continues to place Palestinians under 
administrative detention based on secret material that cannot be 
disclosed, denying them the right to know the particulars of the charges 
against them, violating the basic guarantees of a fair trial. On the 
other hand, administrative detention hinders the Palestinian detainees' 
right to present and build a fair defense guaranteed under Article 10 of 
the UDHR. Neither the detainees nor their lawyers are allowed to know 
the charges' nature or view the prosecution's evidence.

*Article 5:*

*"/No one shall be subjected to torture or cruel, inhuman 
or/**/degrading treatment or punishment/**."*

The Israeli occupation state branches, including the judiciary system, 
have never hesitated to provide a legal cover for all acts of torture, 
cruel and degrading treatment against the Palestinian people by the 
Israeli Occupation Forces and intelligence agencies. Despite the 
entrenched and absolute prohibition of torture, particularly under 
Article 5 of the UDHR and Article 2(2) of the Convention against 
Torture, which Israel ratified on 3 October 1991, Israeli practices on 
the ground reflect a reality that stands in contrast with this 
non-derogable rule.

In reality, the Israeli Occupation Forces practice clear violations of 
this fundamental right from the first moments of the arrest until the 
detention or release of Palestinians, most notably during the 
interrogation process. The Israeli forces systematically put the 
detainees under severe physical and psychological pressure, in many 
cases, as a means to extract confessions. This includes beatings, 
physical assault, sleep deprivation for prolonged hours, which often 
leads to the detainees' collapse, forcing the detainees into stressful 
positions for long periods and calling in their family members, and 
threatening to arrest and brutally interrogate them.

Although the Israeli High Court's 1999 ruling 
<http://www.addameer.org/sites/default/files/publications/story_based_torture_final.pdf> confirms 
the prohibition of the use of torture, however, it does permit the 
practice of "moderate physical pressure" in cases of "necessity defense" 
as outlined in article 34(11) of the Israeli Penal Code of 1977. The 
necessity defense presents a serious loophole that allows the 
interrogation of a person suspected of possessing information on 
"military operations," thus providing a legal cover for Shabak 
interrogators to practice impunity torture and cruel treatment against 
Palestinian prisoners. On 26 November 2018, the Israeli Supreme Court 
rejected Firas Tubayesh's 
<http://www.addameer.org/sites/default/files/publications/for_webtqryr_lnthkt_lnhyy_lnjlyzy.pdf> petition 
regarding torture, undermining the absolute prohibition on torture. This 
ruling's gravity extends beyond legitimizing torture to broadening the 
definition of the "necessity defense."

It is important to note that a number of detainees subjected to this 
form of interrogation techniques were later charged with what can only 
be described as simple charges that primarily revolved around their 
student union activism in universities, like student detainees Ameer 
Hazboun <http://www.addameer.org/prisoner/ameer-hazboun>and Mais Abu 
Ghosh <http://www.addameer.org/prisoner/mais-mohammad-abu-ghosh>.

*Article 10:*

*"/Everyone is entitled in full equality to a fair and public hearing by 
an independent and impartial tribunal, in the determination of his 
rights and obligations and any criminal charge against him./"*

The Israeli military courts display a significant lack of impartiality 
and dependency on the discretion of the Israeli government and 
intelligence agencies, which has effectively transformed the judicial 
system into a tool of the occupation to legalize the Israeli policies 
against the Palestinian people. This includes approving the extension of 
detention for interrogation purposes despite the evident marks of 
torture on the prisoners, approving administrative detention orders 
without a real cause for arrest, and issuing unusually long sentences 
against Palestinians. One cannot overlook Israeli courts' role in 
convicting Palestinian detainees based on confessions extracted under 
duress or torture; instead of finding these confessions inadmissible.

Numerous human rights organizations consider prosecuting civilians 
before military courts an infringement upon the right to a fair trial. 
The idea is that Israeli military courts, whose judges are military 
officers who do not necessarily have long-term judicial training and are 
biased, aim to prosecute Palestinian civilians arrested by the Israeli 
military and charged with "security violations" and other crimes defined 
by the Israeli military orders. Within these military courts, military 
orders always take precedence over Israeli and international law. On the 
rare occasions when international law is used, it is used to favor the 
occupying power. It is important to note that the yearly conviction rate 
of Palestinians in these military courts is always above 99%.

Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association takes the 
opportunity to restore its faith in the Universal Declaration of Human 
Rights' values and principles as a tool to apply human rights standards 
in opposition to the Israeli occupation's apartheid regime and 
systematic injustice practices. Addameer reaffirms its commitment to 
advocate for Palestinians' legitimate rights and support Palestinian 
political prisoners in their quest for liberty and justice.

-- 
Freedom Archives 522 Valencia Street, San Francisco, CA 94110 415 863-9977
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