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[BETHLEHEM, 18 April 2007] - Defence for Children International / Palestine Section (DCI/PS) received the UN Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict and hosted a meeting with Palestinian child rights professionals in Bethlehem on Monday, 16 April, in order to address grave violations against children in the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT). UN Special Representative Radhika Coomaraswamy is currently carrying out a visit to the OPT and Israel , having visited Lebanon from 10 to 13 April. Her visit is in response to invitations from the Governments of those countries, following the release of the 2006 Secretary-General report on children and armed conflict (A/61/529-S/2006/826). During her visit, Ms Coomaraswamy met with representatives from the Palestinian Authority and the Israeli Government; members of civil society and children, in order to assess first hand the situation of children and subsequently promote improved cooperation with all stakeholders to ensure greater protection for children affected by the conflict in this region. On Monday 16 April, DCI/PS, in collaboration with UNICEF, organised a tour of villages in the Hebron and Bethlehem areas of the West Bank, and facilitated meetings with children and child rights professionals. The tour began at the village of at-Tuwani, in the south of the West Bank , where Ms Coomaraswamy met six children from the nearby Tuba village who attend the at-Tuwani Basic School. At-Tuwani is in close proximity to the Israeli settlement of Ma'on. Children from Tuba are forbidden to use any form of transportation to go to school. They walk for four kilometers, back and forth, every day and frequently suffer violent attacks from the Ma'on settlers. The children told Ms Coomaraswamy that they were subjected to random beatings, and that the settlers frequently stole their school bags or tore their school books. They asked the Special Representative to provide them with greater protection in order to go to school, and be allowed to be driven to school. Ms Coomaraswamy then went to Um al Kher where she met Palestinian families living in tents near the Israeli settlement of Karme'l, after their houses had been demolished by the Israeli army. People in Um al Kher also suffer daily aggression from settlers and Israeli soldiers, designed to force them to evacuate the area. They have no running water or electricity, and are denied building permissions, which are granted to settlers living nearby. The 20 children of Um al Kher told the Special Representative that they wanted houses and asked her to put an end to the army and settler violence. Ms Coomaraswamy was then taken to al Nu'man village, near Bethlehem , which is bordered on three sides by the Wall, and cut off from the rest of the West Bank and the Jerusalem area. Residents of al Nu'man are considerably restricted in their movements; they are threatened by settlement expansion; and substantial areas of their land have been confiscated, demonstrating Israel 's efforts to forcibly remove al-Nu'man's inhabitants from their land. The Special Representative listened to a group of children expressing their daily experience of violence and humiliation as they have to cross a checkpoint and a gate to access the West Bank and Jerusalem area. At these crossing points, soldiers hold the village residents for hours; prevent their friends and family from visiting; beat them and terrorise them with gunshots. Ms Coomaraswamy promised children to raise these issues with Israeli officials and include them in her next report. DCI/PS Bethlehem office then hosted a lunch for concerned NGOs, government representatives and education professionals, where Ms Coomaraswamy sought suggestions on issues to raise in her advocacy work at the UN and with Palestinian and Israeli governments. Save the Children Sweden highlighted the need to put pressure on political actors to achieve change, which economic assistance alone cannot bring. Save the Children UK raised the issue of access to education and asked the Special Representative to elicit a first commitment from the Israeli army to no longer use school premises as interrogation and detention centres. Christian Peacemaker Team and the Principal of the Qurtobah school in Hebron talked about the violence perpetrated with impunity by settlers in the city. Teachers are being detained and children and adults are attacked by young settlers in front of soldiers, who never intervene on behalf of the Palestinian victims. Ms Coomaraswamy acknowledged that the issue of impunity was an important one, which had already been raised by Louise Arbour during her visit in November 2006. She pledged to reiterate this issue. DCI/PS and al Haq brought to her attention the plight of Palestinian children arrested and imprisoned by Israel in violation of all basic international juvenile justice standards. Children should not be tried in military courts and should receive fair trials. Israel should stop resorting to administrative detention for children, and either charge them or release them. Badil Resource Centre for Palestinian Residency and Refugee Rights pointed out that forced displacement was a slow but calculated process which lacked visibility at the international level. They asked the Special Representative to raise awareness about the issue, and consider it as an illegal policy rather than advocate on behalf of individual cases. A discussion ensued on the issue of internal political violence and its impact on children; and on the responsibility of the Palestinian Authority to enforce the current ceasefire. Ms Coomaraswamy said that she had already raised this issue with President Mahmoud Abbas in a meeting with him during the previous week. After lunch, Ms Coomaraswamy met eight children from the Hebron and Bethlehem areas to listen to their experiences of the conflict. One child talked about his life in a refugee camp; another one told the Special Representative about being attacked by violent settlers in Hebron on her way to school. A third child talked about how she missed her father who is currently serving a 15 year prison sentence. She explained how she felt when she heard that he was kept in solitary confinement for three months, and how he has suffered during interrogations. Further information
pdf: http://www.dci-pal.org/english/display.cfm?DocId=572&CategoryId=1