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It is a sad irony that Palestinian Prisoners Day - 17 April - comes this
year as massive numbers of Palestinian children are being arrested and
detained by Israeli forces. In the first quarter of 2006 alone, some 350
children were arrested – compared to around 700 child arrests in the
whole of 2005. The vast increase in arrests is in turn leading to
overcrowding in prisons as record numbers of juveniles are being held in
unsuitable and unhygienic conditions. <br><br>
Since the beginning of this Intifada in September 2000, Israeli forces
have arrested around 4,000 Palestinian children, 400 of whom are still in
Israeli prisons and detention centers. The process of arrest and
detention of Palestinian children is a process of systematic abuse and
mistreatment which flouts international legal standards and denies the
basic human rights of detainees first as children and secondly as
prisoners. <br><br>
In affidavits and interviews with DCI/PS lawyers, children have told how
they are handcuffed and blindfolded, humiliated and threatened and often
beaten and kicked from the moment they are arrested up to and often
throughout their interrogation and detention. They are deprived of sleep,
food and access to the bathroom until so-called confessions are coerced
out of them and only then are most children allowed to see their lawyer.
Such interrogation is aimed at extracting quick confessions from children
to prosecute them and others before military courts, which themselves
strive to provide a legal veneer to the illegitimate practices of the
Israeli military. <br><br>
Even after sentencing, the pattern of violence and abuse does not stop.
While it is a widely recognized principle that the deprivation of liberty
is itself the penalty for perpetrating certain offences, Israel continues
to actively punish Palestinian children during their incarceration. The
punishments imposed are disproportionate to the alleged offences and seem
intended not to reform or rehabilitate prisoners, but to humiliate and
intimidate the children and, on as broader level, break the spirit and
resistance of the Palestinian community. <br><br>
Ultimately these Israeli practices against child prisoners contravene a
vast array of human rights instruments including those to which Israel is
a state party, such as the
<a href="http://www.ohchr.org/english/law/cat.htm">UN Convention Against
Torture</a> and the
<a href="http://www.crin.org/resources/../../../docs/resources/treaties/uncrc.asp">
UN Convention on the Rights of the Child</a>, article 37 of which
requires states parties to ensure that: <br><br>
(a) No child shall be subjected to torture or other cruel, inhuman or
degrading treatment or punishment. Neither capital punishment nor life
imprisonment without possibility of release shall be imposed for offences
committed by persons below eighteen years of age; <br><br>
(b) No child shall be deprived of his or her liberty unlawfully or
arbitrarily. The arrest, detention or imprisonment of a child shall be in
conformity with the law and shall be used only as a measure of last
resort and for the shortest appropriate period of time; <br><br>
Given the maltreatment of Palestinian child detainees, the
institutionalized discrimination against them, and the absence of
appropriate legal guarantees, Defence for Children
International/Palestine Section urges the UN, the Secretary General and
all the UN bodies, the International Committee of the Red Cross and the
High Contracting parties to the
<a href="http://www.globalissuesgroup.com/geneva/convention4.html">IV
Geneva Convention</a> to insist that the Israeli government respects and
abides by its commitments and obligations under international
humanitarian and human rights law. <br><br>
On the occasion of Palestinian Prisoners' Day, DCI/PS also asks all
parties to prioritize the issue of child prisoners and put their
immediate and unconditional release at the top of the agenda of any
future discussions and to insist that Israeli occupation forces cease at
once further arrests of Palestinian juveniles in the Occupied Palestinian
Territories. <br><br>
<b>More information</b>
<ul>
<li>Defence for Children International – Palestin Section,
<a href="http://www.dci-pal.org/english/camp/freedom/doclist.cfm?docid=0&categoryid=13">
<i>Factsheet Series on Palestinian Child Political Prisoners: Palestinian
Children Tell their Own Stories</a></i> (August 2001)
<li>Save the Children Sweden:
<a href="http://www.crin.org/resources/../../../resources/infoDetail.asp?ID=4049&flag=report">
<i>One Day in Prison Feels Like a Year: Palestinian Children Tell their
Own Stories</a></i> (2003)
<li>Tyrer Bex:
<a href="http://www.crin.org/resources/../../../resources/infoDetail.asp?ID=5816&flag=report">
<i>The Palestinian Child: the politics of prisoners</a></i> (May 2005)
<li>Defence for Children International - Palestine section,
<a href="http://www.dci-pal.org/english/publ/research/2005/surviving.pdf">
<i>Surviving the Present, Facing the Future: an Analysis of Human Rights
Violations against Palestinian Children in 2004</a></i> (April 2005)
<li>
<a href="http://www.ohchr.org/english/bodies/chr/sessions/62/listdocs.htm#8">
Last Report of the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in
the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967</a> (Mr. John Dugard)
(2006)
<li>Amnesty International,
<a href="http://web.amnesty.org/library/index/ENGMDE150742002"><i>Israel
and the Occupied Territories: Mass detention in cruel, inhuman and
degrading conditions</a></i> (May 2002)
<li>Website:
<a href="http://www.dci-pal.org/english/DisplayConfFR.cfm?DocId=350&CategoryId=4">
Defence for Children International –
</a>
Palestine<a href="http://www.dci-pal.org/english/DisplayConfFR.cfm?DocId=350&CategoryId=4">
Section</a>
</ul><br>
<hr>
<b>Organisation Contact Details:<br>
</b></font>
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<dd>Defence for Children International - Palestine Section <br>
<dd>PO Box 55201<br>
<dd>Jerusalem, Israel<br>
<dd>Main Office: Ramallah, Palestine <br>
<dd>Tel: 00 972 2 240 7530 <br>
<dd>Email: <a href="mailto:dci@dci-pal.org">dci@dci-pal.org</a> <br>
<dd>Website:
<a href="http://www.dci-pal.org">www.dci-pal.org</a><br><br>
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