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<div align="center"><font size=3><br>
</font><font face="verdana" size=1>Tuesday - 28 September
2004 </font><font size=3><b>From:</b>
<a href="mailto:george@dci-pal.org">DCI/PS</a> <br><br>
<br>
</font><font face="arial" size=5 color="#071C9C"><b>Status of Palestinian
Children's Rights:</b> <br><br>
</font><font face="verdana" size=1 color="#071C9C"><b>Israel's violations
of the right to life and security and the rights of children deprived of
their liberty<br>
during the second Intifada.<br><br>
</font><font face="verdana" size=1>Contents:</b> <br><br>
I. Introduction <br>
II. Right to Life and Security <br>
III. Rights of Children Deprived of Their Liberty <br>
IV: Conclusion <br>
ANNEX I: Child Fatalities <br>
ANNEX II: Palestinian Child Political Prisoners <br><br>
<b>I. Introduction</b> <br><br>
Since the beginning of the Palestinian uprising against occupation, or
Intifada, on 29 September 2000, Palestinian children have suffered an
unprecedented series of human rights violations as a result of Israeli
military and settler activity in the Occupied Palestinian Territories
(OPT). Hundreds of children have been killed, thousands injured and
arrested, and hundreds of thousands of others exposed to repeated
violence, denied an adequate standard of living, and denied the right to
education and adequate health care. <br><br>
These violations are not the result of new measures that Israel has
implemented in response to the Intifada. Rather, they are the result of
Israel’s intensification of pre-existing policies implemented in the OPT
that are aimed towards controlling Palestinian land and the movement of
persons and goods in these areas. <br><br>
Israeli restrictions on Palestinian freedom of movement since September
2000, along with Israeli military actions in the OPT, has caused a
dramatic downturn of the Palestinian economy and a significant decline in
the Palestinian standard of living. An estimated 60 – 70% of the
Palestinian workforce is unemployed and over half the population is
reliant upon direct food aid. Pre-existing conditions have been
exacerbated in many parts of the West Bank since 2002 due to Israel’s
ongoing construction of the West Bank Segregation Wall. <br><br>
Constituting over half the population, and as the most vulnerable and
dependent sector of society, Palestinian children are disproportionately
affected by Israeli policies. Inability to access medical care, poverty
levels that affect nutritional intake and interruptions in some
immunization programs have all lead to an overall decrease in the status
of children’s health and an increase in malnutrition and anaemia rates.
Spiralling poverty, curfews and closures, the devastation of basic
infrastructure, the ever-present threat of violence and the deliberate
destruction of homes and schools have provoked a serious decline in the
quality of education and the loss of school days. <br><br>
In 1991, Israel became a State Party to the UN Convention on the Rights
of the Child (CRC). In 2002, upon its initial review of Israel’s
compliance with the CRC, the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child
underlined the applicability of the Convention in the OPT and Israel’s
responsibility to implement its provisions therein. Likewise, in its 9
July 2004 Advisory Opinion concerning the Legal Consequences of the
Construction of a Wall in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, the
International Court of Justice affirmed the CRC’s applicability to
Palestinian areas under Israeli occupation. <br><br>
In spite of Israel’s clear and well defined legal obligation to respect
and ensure Palestinian children’s rights, Israel continues to deny the
applicability of human rights treaties to the OPT while its military
forces simultaneously perpetrate systematic violations of Palestinian
human rights as they enforce policies sanctioned by the government of
Israel. <br><br>
This report covers the period from 29 September – 30 June 2004 and
focuses on violations of the right to life and violations suffered by
children deprived of their liberty. It is based on DCI/PS documentation
and adopts a rights based approach, examining Israel’s treatment of
Palestinian children during this period through the lens of the CRC, the
most widely ratified human rights treaty in history. <br><br>
Download Full
<a href="http://www.dci-pal.org/english/doc/reports/2004/sep28.pdf">Report
[PDF Format 236KB]</a> <br>
Copyright © 2004 DCI/PS. All rights reserved.</font><font size=3>
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