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Summary: International Conference "Kids Behind Bars":
30 June - 2 July 2005. Opening speech by
Nidal Al Ayasa, Representative from the
DCI/Palestine Children's Conference.
Dear friends, fellow children and guests,
I would like to welcome all of you to this “Kids Behind Bars” international
conference. To all Palestinian and international participants, all DCI
sections and guest speakers from the four corners of the world, I
say “salem alekum”.
My name is Nidal Al-Ayasa, I’m 16 years old. I live in Beit Jala, which is just
3 km away from here but my family originally comes from Zakaria village,
which was destroyed and from which my family were expelled by the
Israelis in 1948. That means that I am one of the 4.5 million Palestinian
refugees in the world today.
I have come here today to tell you a bit about the 3rd Annual National
Children’s Conference organized by DCI Palestine, which I have taken part
in along with 110 other children over the last three days. This year’s
conference’s theme is the same as this international conference: “Kids
Behind Bars”. Many of the children in attendance are ex-child detainees.
We have been taking part in workshops on various issues, including the
torture of children inside Israeli detention centers and prisons, children
behind the segregation wall, rehabilitation and working with ex-child
detainees. The children have come from all over the Occupied Palestinian
Territories and the Syrian Golan Heights to exchange their real-life
experiences and discuss common issues. Through this conference, I believe
DCI Palestine is trying to give us children a voice and show us that we and
our opinions matter and that we can participate in the decisions that affect
us and the society we live in. I said that the children have come from all
over the Occupied Palestinian Territories, but that’s not strictly true,
because children from the Gaza Strip could not attend as they are
prevented from leaving an area of 360 km2. Their fundamental right to
move freely is being violated on a daily basis.
Many more of their basic rights are violated on a daily basis, as are ours
here in the West Bank. Despite this, we try to advocate and ensure our
rights, with the support of organizations like DCI. We participate in many
activities that empower us to be the protagonists of our own lives and
allow us to discover what our rights and needs are as children of this
world. The activities and workshops we take part in are aimed at children
from all backgrounds, allowing the less fortunate to have their own share
of free expression. Maybe I’m thinking of ex-child detainees when I say the
less fortunate.
I would especially like to mention the results of one of these activities. Just
recently, I with many other children took part in a series of workshops run
by DCI Palestine on child rights. We explored and interpreted the
Convention on the Rights of the Child the way we see it and then used
different media, like painting, collage and drama to express our vision of
these rights. In another part of the website we shared our stories: stories
of our experiences of being teenage kids in a place like Palestine. Some of
these stories are stories about being in prison. DCI Palestine collected the
stories we told and put them in a book called “Our voices”, which you will
find in your conference bag. I really invite you to read it!
But coming back to the children’s conference, we as children, envisioning
the way we would like our future to be, have drawn up a number of
recommendations that regard not only to us as Palestinian children, but to
all children all over the world who are suffering behind bars. I would like to
share some of these with you:
With regard to child detainees, of course we believe that a child’s place is
not in prison suffer and we therefore call for all Palestinian children and all
children all over the world who are sitting behind bars as we speak to be
released.
We call for an immediate end to administrative detention and demand that
all children’s fundamental right as a human being to a fair trial be upheld
and respected.
For us the issue of child detainees and their families is very important. If
children are in prison, then we want them at least to be treated fairly, with
no torture, no coercion or degrading treatment, and that measures are
taken to improve the channel of communication between the family and the
child in prison. One special recommendation is that the effect of child
detention on families not be ignored. Something must be done to raise
their spirits and keep them hopeful during the detention of their child.
When a child comes out of prison they need to be offered the chance to
reintegrate into society after their traumatic experience. They must be
given access to the real door they deserve to enter through. Schools must
commit to reinserting ex-child detainees into the educational system.
Organisations like DCI Palestine and others must continue to offer
activities that welcome ex-child detainees as participants.
Of course, awareness must be raised with regard to the plight of children
in prison all over the world. We would also like children to have the means
to make their own media, to let everyone know really happens behind bars
from their perspective.
You know it feels great to be up here addressing you all, in the name of all
children all over the world, having the chance to express our concerns and
hopes for the future, to express our suffering and pain. I speak in the
name of all the millions of children in the world whose fundamental rights
are violated on a daily basis. Not only us children in Palestine who suffer at
the hands of the Israeli occupation, but all the children who suffer much
worse fates. Please do not forget all the children who do not have
anything to eat, their basic right to food is being denied. Please do not
forget all the children who cannot go to school, their basic right to
education denied. Please do not forget all the children who cannot see a
doctor or have no access to clean drinking water or electricity. And
especially do not forget the more than one million kids stuck behind bars at
this present moment.
Before I leave you now, I have one little wish. I wish that these
recommendations which I have just read out will be taken seriously and
not just put on the shelf to gather dust. As a child, and in particular as a
Palestinian child, I have little or no influence over governments’ actions nor
have I any power to stop my rights from being violated. So, I would like to
ask all of you here present and especially, Mr. Paulo Sergio Pinheiro, the
independent expert on the UN Secretary General’s Study on Violence
against Children Professor Jaap Doek, given your position as Chairman of
the Committee on the Rights of the Child, to add these recommendations
to the ones you already have in your work in promoting and defending the
rights of children all over the world. I don’t know to what extent you can
spread our message or pressurize governments to put a stop to violations
of children’s rights, but I sure hope that you will try.
Thank you…