UNICEF calls for better treatment of Palestinian children under Israeli detention
Issuing recommendations to improve the protection of minors, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) last week said that Israeli military is violating international laws in their treatment of Palestinian children they are detaining. “Ill-treatment of Palestinian children in the Israeli military detention system appears to be widespread, systematic and institutionalized”, according to a UNICEF briefing paper.
To set the context, approximately 700 Palestinian children each year between the ages of 12 and 17 are arrested, interrogated and detained by Israeli army, police and security agents, according to figures cited in “Children in Israeli military detention: observations and recommendations”.
The 22-page long report cites examples of children being arrested in the middle of the night by heavily armed soldiers, physical and verbal abuse during transfer and interrogation in an overall ‘treatment inconsistent with child rights’.
Recommending policy changes to prevent breaches of international law and to safeguard Israeli authorities from false allegations of wrongdoing, UNICEF said that “the arrest, detention or imprisonment of a child shall be used only as a measure of last resort and for the shortest appropriate period of time”.
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