Hundreds of Children Remain Behind Bars
Ahed’s example
Ahed Tamimi, a Palestinian teenager whose case reached the world stage earlier this year, has now been released after eight months of imprisonment in an Israeli detention centre.
Ahed was detained for slapping an Israeli soldier in the occupied West Bank, near her home in Nabi Saleh. The viral video of this scene turned her into an international symbol of Palestinian resistance, but the Israeli occupation forces saw Ahed as a troublemaker.
When she was sentenced in January 2018 she was only 16 years old and was charged with 12 counts of assault and incitement. She was not granted bail, and after a plea bargain was made in March, served eight months in Ofer military prison. In April, her lawyer filed a complaint with the Israeli general attorney’s office over sexual harassment of a minor during an interrogation. Her lawyer Ms. Gaby Lasky said that her experiences show,
“the [Israeli] law enforcement system infringes upon the rights of Palestinian minors.”
Making a statement on her release, Ahed referred to the hundreds of other women and children in detention, saying,
“The resistance continues until the occupation is removed.”
Israel’s child detention record
Ahed’s case is not an isolated one. It is estimated that 350 children are currently detained in Israeli prisons and hundreds are tried in military courts. These sustained violations have been highlighted by a number of government and non-governmental organisations.
Earlier this year, the UK parliament held a debate on the military detention of Palestinian children by Israeli authorities and concluded that Israel’s treatment of Palestinian children was in breach of:
Article 76 of the 4th Geneva Convention on the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War (concerning occupied territories) and Several Articles of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.
Similarly, Amnesty and other human rights NGOs have campaigned for a number of years to end the widely documented ill-treatment, arbitrary and administrative detention of Palestinian minors.
“Israel is the only country in the world that automatically prosecutes children in military courts that lack fundamental fair rights and guarantees.”
As reported by the European Parliament, the West Bank is a specific example of this because it has two separate legal systems operating in the same territory. The sole factor in determining which laws apply to a person is his or her nationality and ethnicity.
Administrative detention is particularly harmful to minors. It is used as a measure to detain indefinitely, without charge or trial. International human rights law states that it is meant to be used as a last resort, but it is often used as a first resort in the Israeli judiciary system.
Why are there so many Palestinian children being detained?
In a recent interview on IOHR TV, Chris Amos, Director of the Amos Trust, succinctly summarises why so many young Palestinians are being arrested in Israel,
“There are waves of resistance, particularly in the refugee camps. One of the most effective ways of breaking that down, is by arresting children at a young age.”
The arrest of children creates disharmony and mistrust in the community, who then suspect the child of working with Israeli forces, thereby fulfilling the aim of detentions – to discourage resistance to occupation.
Other countries and child prisoners
Israel is unique in being the only country to detain and prosecute children within a military court and prison system. However, there are a number of other countries on the watchlists of human rights organisations for the unjust detention of minors. In a 2016 report by Human Rights Watch, children were found to be held primarily for two reasons. First, if they were considered to be a threat to national security, and second under migrant detention. The countries highest on the watchlist for detaining children deemed a threat to national security were Afghanistan, Democratic Republic of Congo, Iraq, Israel/Palestine, Nigeria, Syria and the United States.
The report expressed concern about countries such as Zambia where children are being detained alongside adults, and Brazil, that wanted to decrease the age of child trial to 16 from 18. This would mean 16-year-olds would be treated as adults for offences.
Concerns were also expressed over Iran, which is one of only four countries known to have executed child offenders since 2013 – the others are Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Yemen. All of these countries are in direct contravention of international law.
In a positive development, some countries, including Cambodia and Trinidad and Tobago, took steps towards establishing a separate justice system for children.
On the other hand, immigration detention of children is sharply on the rise. The recent US scandal of the detention and separation of children is a clear demonstration that states have a long way to go in improving their human rights record with regards to child detention.
Every UN member state has made written a commitment to ending child detention. It is time that commitment translated into firm actions to bring a permanent end to child detention.