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Israel's Compliance with the Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman Or Degrading Treatment Or Punishment Alternat

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Israel's Compliance with the Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman Or Degrading Treatment Or Punishment Alternat Israel’s Compliance with the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment Alternative Report to the Fifth Periodic Report of Israel ILL-TREATMENT AND TORTURE OF PALESTINIAN CHILDREN IN ISRAELI MILITARY DETENTION AND USE OF EXCESSIVE FORCE BY ISRAELI FORCES 57th Session of the Committee Against Torture (CAT) 18 April – 13 May 2016 27 March 2016 Submitted by: Brad Parker Carolina Barbara International Advocacy Officer & Attorney Child Rights Coordinator OMCT – World Organisation Against Torture Bashar Jamal 8, rue du Vieux-Billard Advocacy Officer 1211 Geneva 8, Switzerland Defence for Children International Palestine t. +41 (0)22 809 49 39 Al-Sartawi Building 3rd Fl., Sateh Marhaba e. [email protected] Ramallah, Occupied Palestinian Territory www.omct.org t. +970 2 242 7530 e. [email protected] www.dci-palestine.org Contents Overview ......................................................................................................................................... 1 Ill-treatment and torture against Palestinian children in Israeli military detention .............. 3 Issue Summary ............................................................................................................................ 3 Arrest ....................................................................................................................................... 5 Physical violence during arrest ............................................................................................ 6 Methods and means of restraint ........................................................................................... 6 Transfer .................................................................................................................................... 7 Physical violence, verbal abuse, humiliation and intimidation ........................................... 8 Medical checks, prolonged exposure to the elements and strip searching .......................... 8 Denial of Basic Necessities ............................................................................................... 10 Interrogation .......................................................................................................................... 10 Use of restraints during interrogation ................................................................................ 11 Denied access to attorney and presence of a parent .......................................................... 11 Verbal abuse, threats and intimidation .............................................................................. 12 Solitary confinement for interrogation purposes ............................................................... 12 Role of informants in interrogation process ...................................................................... 13 Torture ................................................................................................................................... 14 Physical and psychological violence as torture ................................................................. 14 Solitary confinement as torture ......................................................................................... 15 Renewed us of administrative detention orders against Palestinian children ........................ 15 Recent amendments to Military Order 1651 related to children ........................................... 16 A note on East Jerusalem ...................................................................................................... 17 Committee against Torture position .......................................................................................... 18 Other UN human rights treaty bodies or special procedure positions ....................................... 18 Recommended Questions .......................................................................................................... 20 Suggested Recommendations .................................................................................................... 21 Excessive use of force and unlawful killing ............................................................................... 23 Issue Summary .......................................................................................................................... 23 Nadeem Nawara, 17, and Muhammad Abu Daher, 16, killed May 15, 2014 ........................... 23 Mohammad Dudeen, 15, killed June 20, 2014 .......................................................................... 24 Hashem Khader Abu Maria, 45, killed July 25, 2014 ............................................................... 25 Mohammad Sami Ali Kasba, 17, killed July 3, 2015 ................................................................ 25 Laith Fadil al-Khalidi, 15, killed July 31, 2015 ........................................................................ 26 Abdel-Rahman Shadi Obeidallah, 13, killed October 5, 2015 .................................................. 26 Ahmad Awad Abu al-Rub, 16, killed November 2, 2015 ......................................................... 26 Hadeel Wajih Awwad, 14, killed November 23, 2015 .............................................................. 27 Haitham Ismail Saada, 14, killed February 5, 2016 .................................................................. 27 Mahmoud Mohammad Shaalan, 16, killed February 26, 2016 ................................................. 28 Recommended Questions .......................................................................................................... 28 Suggested Recommendations .................................................................................................... 29 OVERVIEW Children represent 46.2 percent of the 4.68 million Palestinians living in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip, and instability and violence defines much of their lives. Since 2000, Israeli forces and extremists have killed more than 2,045 Palestinian children, including 551 in 2014 alone, the majority during Israeli military offensives on the Gaza Strip, according to documentation collected by Defense for Children International – Palestine. While the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment provides that no one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, and that this prohibition is absolute, Palestinian children living in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, are routinely subjected to widespread and systematic ill-treatment and torture and the excessive use of force by Israeli forces. At least 48 Palestinian children from the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip have been killed between October 2015 and March 2016 as a direct result of intensified violence, all except one at the hands of Israeli forces.1 Of this number, 34 allegedly carried out knife or gun attacks. The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reported more than 2,177 Palestinian children from the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, sustained injuries. Palestinian children in the West Bank, like adults, face arrest, prosecution, and imprisonment under an Israeli military detention system that denies them basic rights. Since 1967, Israel has operated two separate legal systems in the same territory. In the occupied West Bank, Israeli settlers are subject to the civilian and criminal legal system whereas Palestinians live under military law. Israel applies civilian criminal law to Palestinian children in East Jerusalem. No Israeli child comes into contact with the military courts. Israel has the dubious distinction of being the only country in the world that systematically prosecutes between 500 and 700 children in military courts each year.2 Since 2012, Israel has held an average of 204 Palestinian children in custody each month, according to data provided by the Israel Prison Service. 1 Of the 48 child fatalities, three children were killed in the Gaza Strip. Marwan Hashem Barbakh, 10, died of a single gunshot wound to the chest on October 10, when Israeli soldiers used lethal force to quash a protest near 2 Exact figures on the number of Palestinian children detained each year by Israeli authorities are not published by the Israel Prison Service (IPS). The estimate of 500-700 children is based on figures provided by the IPS of the number children in prison facilities at the end of each month, and the best estimate of DCIP lawyers who appear daily in the military courts and conduct regular prison visits. 1 Ill-treatment in the Israeli military detention system remains “widespread, systematic, and institutionalized throughout the process,” according to the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) report Children in Israeli Military Detention Observations and Recommendations.3 Defense for Children International – Palestine (DCIP) collected affidavits from 429 West Bank children detained between 2012 and 2015 that show three-quarters of them endured some form of physical violence following arrest. In 97 percent of the cases, children had no parent present during the interrogation or access to legal counsel. Interrogators used position abuse, threats, and isolation to coerce confessions from some of these children. DCIP documented 66 children held in solitary confinement for interrogation purposes, for an average period of 13 days, during the reporting period. In 2015, Israeli authorities held Abdel-Fatah Ouri, 17, in isolation
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