September 2, 2010

Today, DCI-Palestine, Adalah - The Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel and the Public Committee Against Torture in Israel (PCATI) have written a letter to Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, expressing deep concern over continued reports of ill-treatment and torture of Palestinian children who are detained and prosecuted in the Israeli military court system.

Each year, approximately 700 Palestinian children from the occupied West Bank are prosecuted in Israeli military courts, and reports of ill-treatment and torture are common place. Out of a sample of 100 sworn affidavits collected by lawyers from these children in 2009, 69 percent of the children reported being beaten and kicked, 49 percent reported being threatened, 14 percent were held in solitary confinement, 12 percent were threatened with sexual assault, including rape, and 32 percent were forced to sign confessions written in Hebrew, a language they do not understand.

DCI-Palestine, Adalah and PCATI call on the Israeli authorities to implement the following safeguards referred to by the UN Human rights Committee and the UN Committee Against Torture in an attempt to reduce the level of abuse reported by Palestinian children held in detention:

1. Ensure that all interrogations of Palestinian children by Israeli authorities are conducted in the presence of a family member;
2. Ensure that all interrogations of Palestinian children by Israeli authorities are conducted in the presence of a lawyer; and
3. Ensure that all interrogations of Palestinian children by Israeli authorities are audio-visually recorded.