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Summary: This report looks at the state of Palestinian Since the beginning of the Palestinian uprising against occupation, or Intifada, on 29 September 2000, PalestinianĀ children have suffered an unprecedented series of human rights violations as a result of Israeli military and settler activity in the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT). Hundreds of children have been killed, thousands injured and arrested, and hundreds of thousands of others exposed to repeated violence, denied an adequate standard of living, and denied the right to education and adequate health care. These violations are not the result of new measures that Israel has implemented in response to the Intifada. Rather, they are the result of Israelās intensification of pre-existing policies implemented in the OPT that are aimed towards controlling Palestinian land and the movement of persons and goods in these areas. Israeli restrictions on Palestinian freedom of movement since September 2000, along with Israeli military actions in the OPT, has caused a dramatic downturn of the Palestinian economy and a significant decline in the Palestinian standard of living. An Constituting over half the population, and as the most vulnerable and dependent sector of society, Palestinian children are disproportionately affected by Israeli policies. Inability to access medical care, poverty levels that affect nutritional intake and In 1991, Israel became a State Party to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC). In 2002, upon its initial review of Israelās compliance with the CRC, the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child underlined the applicability of the Convention in the In spite of Israelās clear and well defined legal obligation to respect and ensure Palestinian childrenās rights, Israel continues to deny the applicability of human rights treaties to the OPT while its military forces simultaneously perpetrate systematic violations of Palestinian human rights as they enforce policies sanctioned by This report covers the period from 29 September ā 30 June 2004 and focuses on violations of the right to life and violations suffered by children deprived of their liberty. It is based on DCI/PS documentation and adopts a rights based approach, examining Israelās treatment of Palestinian children during this period through the lens of the CRC, the most widely ratified human rights treaty in history.
chidlren and Israel's violations of the right to
life and security and the rights of children
deprived of their liberty during the second
Intifada, that started four years ago, in
September 2000.
estimated 60 ā 70 per centĀ of the Palestinian workforce is unemployed and over half the population is reliant upon direct food aid. Pre-existing conditions have been exacerbated in many parts of the West Bank since 2002 due to Israelās ongoing construction of the
West Bank Segregation Wall.
interruptions in some immunization programs have all lead to an overall decrease in the status of childrenās health and an increase in malnutrition and anaemia rates. Spiralling poverty, curfews and closures, the devastation of basic infrastructure, the ever-present
threat of violence and the deliberate destruction of homes and schools have provoked a serious decline in the quality of education and the loss of school days.
OPT and Israelās responsibility to implement its provisions therein. Likewise, in its 9 July 2004 Advisory Opinion concerning the Legal Consequences of the Construction of a Wall in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, the International Court of Justice affirmed
the CRCās applicability to Palestinian areas under Israeli occupation.
the government of Israel.