CHILD DETENTION: EU Parliament to review prison conditions inside Israel

Summary: This move comes after reports of the unlawful detention of children, forced confessions of child detainees, their inadequate separation from adult prisoners, and sleep deprivation, among other allegations.

[9 March 2011] - On 15 March 2011, the EU Parliament's Sub-Committee on Human Rights will review prison conditions in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territory. In advance of the hearing, DCI-Palestine has lodged a submission relating to conditions faced by Palestinian child detainees held in Israeli interrogation and detention facilities and prisons.

DCI-Palestine's submission to the Sub-Committee provides evidence of ill-treatment and torture during the initial stages of detention, and also includes:

• Information that 27 per cent of Palestinian child detainees are forced to sign confessions written in Hebrew.
• Information that 58 per cent of Palestinian child detainees are being held inside Israel, in contravention of Article 76 of the Fourth Geneva Convention;
• Information indicating that as many as 43 per cent of child detainees are not adequately separated from adult prisoners;
• Evidence that 55 per cent of Palestinian child detainees complain of inadequate food, water or shelter;
• Information suggesting that most Palestinian child detainees do not receive family visits during the first three months of their detention, and no Palestinian child detainees are permitted to maintain telephone communication with their families;
• Evidence that Palestinian child detainees receive inadequate education services inside prison, and in some cases, no education at all; and
• Evidence that children held in the Al Jalame Interrogation and Detention Centre near Haifa, are routinely subjected to serious mistreatment, including position abuse, sleep depravation and solitary confinement.

DCI-Palestine continues to demand that all interrogations of Palestinian child detainees be audio-visually recorded, and no Palestinian child is detained inside Israel, in contravention of Article 76 of the Fourth Geneva Convention.

Further Information:

• CHILD DETENTION: In their own Words - Palestinian children detained in the Israeli military courts [Defence for Children International (DCI), January 2011]
• Israel's compliance with the Convention on the Rights of the Child and its two Optional Protocol [DCI, January 2011]
• ISRAEL: Jerusalem child arrests break law [13 December 2010]
• PALESTINE: Sixty Israeli professionals speak out at violence against children [1 December 2010]
• CRIN's campaign to end the inhuman sentencing of children 
• More on children's rights in the Occupied Palestinian Territories and Israel