DCI-PALESTINE BULLETIN: ISRAEL IMPRISONED AND PROSECUTED 193 CHILDREN IN JUNE
Gaza City, 20 Ramadhan1434/28 July 2013 (MINA) – Defence for Children International-Palestine Section in its June report said that “as of June 30, 2013, a total of 193 Palestinian children were imprisoned and prosecuted in the Israeli military court system,”
The monthly report has elaborated the number mentioned as follows:
“The number of children between the ages of 12 and 15 was 41, a decrease of 14.6 percent, but still higher than the annual averages of the past three years, according to Alray media agency report monitored by Mi’raj News Agency (MINA).
The United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child released a report in June finding that Israel forces continue to commit serious violations against Palestinian children, including systematic ill-treatment of children in Israeli military detention.
DCI-Palestine submitted a report to four separate United Nations independent human rights experts on June 25 that detailed the widespread and systematic ill-treatment Palestinian children encounter in the Israeli military detention system during 2012.
The report details the type of violations children encounter in the system, including the use of hand ties in 97% of cases; use of blindfolds in 95% of cases; and no lawyer present during interrogation in 99% of cases
The report highlighted that Palestinian children were subjected to physical violence during arrest, transfer or interrogation in 74% of cases.
Solitary confinement was used for interrogation purposes on Palestinian children in 19% of cases.
The report was based on 108 affidavits collected during 2012 from Palestinian children arrested in the West Bank and prosecuted in the Israeli military detention system.
Defence for Children International-Palestine Section (DCI-Palestine) is a national section of the international non-governmental child rights organisation and movement, Defence for Children International (DCI), established in 1979. As such, it is a member of the International General Assembly of DCI, which convenes every three years.
Meanwhile, Addameer has seen an increase in child detention since January 2013, with the current number of children detained reaching 236 (39 of them under the age of 16). Child prisoners are generally held in Ofer Prison outside of Ramallah or HaSharon Prison, which was re-opened in 2012 despite the terrible living conditions of the cells.
Currently, 44 children are held in HaSharon, 18 from Jerusalem, 1 from Gaza and the rest from the West Bank. According to accounts from the children, the cells are in immensely poor condition and are not fit for human life. The prison building itself is deteriorating, very humid and filled with diseases and germs.
Children are provided only 4 hours of education per week. They are not provided with any curriculum and only study Mathematics and Arabic at two levels.
Additionally, they are often prevented to take their final exams, thus severely impeding their education. Article 94 of the Fourth Geneva Convention imposes a duty on the detaining power to encourage educational pursuits and to provide adequate premises for such. The Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners mandates, in Article 77, that “provision shall be made for the further education of all prisoners.”
It further iterates that “the education of illiterates and young children shall be compulsory and special attention shall be paid by the administration.”
Further, Israel’s treatment of these children, regarding the continuance of their education, is in direct contravention of Articles 13.5, 22.1, and 26.2 of the Beijing Rules, which fervently insist on the right of minors at every stage of their arrest and detention to a full and unimpeded education.
Most concerning is the harsh interrogation and subsequent torture the children face upon their arrest. Often children are arrested in the middle of the night from their home by a large brigade of soldiers, such as the case of Ali S., a 16 year old child who faces 25 years for attempted murder for throwing stones.
Child prisoners are not exempt from harsh treatment by the Special Forces. In HaSharon, the representative for the child prisoners, Mohammad Q., also a child prisoner, was transferred to Ofer Prison after he lodged a complaint against the prison authority about the lack of natural sunlight in his cell, due to metal sheet installed in front of the window. He was a constant advocate for the rights of child prisoners, and consequently was transferred to Ofer as an attempt to prevent him from “causing civil disobedience. (T/P02/E1)
Mi’raj News Agency (MINA)
