When discussing the Israeli army's mistreatment of Palestinian children it is important to first establish exactly which human rights violations are being committed according to established international conventions and treaties. In February of 2013 UNICEF released a report “Children in Israeli Military Detention: Observations and Recommendations” detailing the specific violations being committed and which conventions or treaties were broken as the result of these violations. Some of the accusations of abuse towards Palestinian children by the Israeli army is wrongful arrest or imprisonment, acts of torture, failure to provide legal representation, and use of violence or threats of use of violence. Most of these violations are addressed in the UNICEF report. For this section of our webzine we will focus on the wrongful arrests and imprisonment of Palestinian children and it’s ramifications in the human rights discussion.
In Israel and in accordance with the Israeli army order 1651 section. 191 it states “No child shall be arrested or prosecuted in the military courts.”, a child in this instance is considered twelve years old and younger. Which is problematic in that there are numerous reports of the Israeli army arresting children as young as six years old. Therefore these children under the age of twelve are being unlawfully arrested and detained. There are also reports of the Israeli army wrongfully arresting Palestinian children for the crime of throwing rocks at Israeli soldiers, detaining them for days , only to release the children without a conviction or proof of a crime ever have been committed. By not only wrongfully arresting and detaining these children the Israeli army violates article 37 section b. of the Convention on the Rights of the Child which states, “(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” and article 9 section 1 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights which states, “ Everyone has the right to liberty and security of person. No one shall be subjected to arbitrary arrest or detention. No one shall be deprived of his liberty except on such grounds and in accordance with such procedure as are established by law.” It clearly states in both the CRC and the ICCPR that by arbitrarily arresting these children without solid evidence of a crime being committed it is a violation of their human rights. The Israeli army must take measures to not only make sure that it’s soldiers are following the orders or laws laid down by the Israeli army itself but also that any arrests made by Israeli soldiers of Palestinian children are backed up with evidence of the child's involvement in an actual crime. According to article 9 section 5 of the ICCPR anyone wrongly arrested or imprisoned has a right to compensation, “Anyone who has been the victim of unlawful arrest or detention shall have an enforceable right to compensation.” Which the Israeli army has also failed to offer or provide as a means of an apology for it’s harassment of innocent Palestinian children. Of course a monetary compensation in no way makes up for any trauma inflicted on these children but it is a step in the right direction.
As mentioned earlier the Israeli army is accused of countless crimes against Palestinian children and the twenty-two page UNICEF report goes more into detail about those violations. The UNICEF report also offers up a few solutions of these violations for the Israeli army. Documents like the Conventions on the Right of the Child and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights were created for a reason, to prevent or stop human rights violations like the ones happening in the West Bank and Gaza from happening. While I am well aware that it’s a challenge to stop ALL human rights violations from occurring and even more challenging in a region of conflict. Nonetheless it’s important that governments like Israel still strive to implement policies laid out in these human rights documents in order to protect the human rights of all people, especially the rights of children. Failure to do so is inexcusable.
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Sources:
http://www.unicef.org/oPt/UNICEF_oPt_Children_in_Israeli_Military_Detention_Observations_and_Recommendations_-_6_March_2013.pdf
http://www.worldbulletin.net/news/134922/israeli-soldiers-arrest-6-year-old-boy
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