I am deeply concerned by the unacceptable manner of, and practices around, the detention and trial of Palestinian children in Israeli prisons and the Israeli military court system. As a contracting party, Israel is bound by the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR). I am not satisfied that Israel is meeting its obligations under these Conventions.
All children subject to Israeli jurisdiction and criminal justice, including in territory occupied by Israel, should be afforded the same protections under the law as Israel considers appropriate for Israeli children.
During my visits to Israel and Palestine, I raised Ireland’s concerns about the detention of minors directly with the Israeli authorities, including on the practices of night-time arrests and blindfolding. I have strongly urged the Israeli authorities to use detention only as a last resort, and for the shortest possible period of time, in the case of minors, as stipulated in the CRC.
The Israeli military court system, which is used only in relation to Palestinians in the Occupied Territory, including children, has a near-one hundred percent conviction rate, a statistic which raises serious questions about the system’s compliance with international standards of due process. Ireland has recommended that Israel should urgently end the admissibility of evidence in military courts of written confessions in Hebrew signed by Palestinian children, the use of solitary confinement and the denial of access to family members or to legal representation.
In the most recent UN Human Rights Council Universal Periodic Review of Israel in 2018, Ireland drew attention to concerns regarding the treatment of Palestinian prisoners. Ireland raised the issue of administrative detention and recommended that Israel ensure full respect for international human rights obligations. Ireland has also raised these issues at EU level. In February 2019, the Foreign Affairs Council adopted Conclusions on EU Priorities in UN human rights fora, which reaffirmed the EU’s commitment to the full implementation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child and its Protocols worldwide.
Ireland continues to support a number of key Palestinian and Israeli NGOs in their work on the monitoring, advocacy and legal defence of human rights in the Occupied Palestinian Territory.
