By Mint
Press
Global
Research, January 16, 2016
Mint Press 15 January 2016
In a 2013 review of
Israel’s child rights record, the UN Committee on the Rights of Children (CRC)
said it has deep concern about the reported practice of torture and
ill-treatment of children arrested, prosecuted and detained by the military and
the police
Following a November 2015
report by the Independent, in which it quoted NGO rights organization the
Palestinian Prisoners Club (PPC) that at least 600 Palestinian children have
been arrested in Jerusalem alone in the first half of 2015 and that roughly 40%
were sexually abused, a new January 2016 report was also issued by the
Independent, this time saying that the Israeli government is torturing children
and keeping them in outdoor cages during winter time.
The Independent cited a
report published by The Public Committee Against Torture in Israel (PCATI)
saying that “children accused of minor crimes were subject to public caging,
threats and acts of sexual violence and military trials without
representation.”
Upon a visit by Israel’s
Public Defender’s Office (PDO) lawyers, shocking details of happenings in the
detention facility was uncovered.
“During our visit, held
during a fierce storm that hit the state, attorneys met detainees who described
to them a shocking picture: in the middle of the night dozens of detainees were
transferred to the external iron cages built outside the IPS transition
facility in Ramla,” the PDO described the scene on its website.
It turns out that this
procedure, under which prisoners waited outside in cages, lasted for several
months, and was verified by other officials.
The report said the
incident in Ramala was just one example of a broad range of abuses being
suffered.
As for the charges upon
which the children are detained, the PCATI quoted figures from the campaign
group, noting that “The majority of Palestinian child detainees are charged
with throwing stones.”
74 per cent of these
children experience physical violence during arrest, transfer or interrogation,
the reported added, underscoring that Israel was the only government to
systematically prosecute children in its military courts, and added that “no
Israeli children come into contact with the military court system”.
In the first three weeks of
November 2014 alone, Israel kidnapped at least 380 Palestinians from across the
occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem.
In a 2013 review of child
rights record, the UN Committee on the Rights of Children (CRC) said it has
deep concern about the reported practice of torture and ill-treatment of
Palestinian children arrested, prosecuted and detained by the military and the
police, and about the State party’s failure to end these practices in spite of
repeated concerns expressed by treaty bodies.
It further added that there
is “continuous use of physical and verbal violence, humiliation, painful
restraints, hooding of the head and face in a sack, death threats, physical violence,
sexual assault against them or members of their family, and restricted access
to toilet, food and water.”
The CRC report also
explained that the Israeli army used Palestinian children as human shields
multiple times.
More than 7,000
Palestinians are reportedly held in 17 Israeli prisons and detention camps.
Several human rights organizations have repeatedly called on the United Nation
to stop Israel from arresting and torturing Palestinian children, to stop
prosecution them under military law and release all children detained
unlawfully.
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