CONFERENCE: Justice for the Palestinian detainees
2017-09-11
- -INVITATION -
The Hague, 8th -10thDecember 2017
The European alliance in defence of Palestinian detainees is honoured to invite you to participate in its fourth conference,
8th -10th December 2017, Lange Kleiweg 86, 2288 GR Rijwijk, (Holland / The Hague)
- aim is the establishment of a lawyers’ group for the defence of the Palestinian prisoners and to highlight their suffering. .
According to the Convention against Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment “no one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman treatment or punishment”.
Israel has continuously refused to acknowledge the applicability of the Convention in relation to the OPT in its entirety. In a legal opinion on the illegality of the wall in the OPT, the International Court of Justice confirmed that the Israeli Occupying Power has a responsibility to uphold both international human rights law and international humanitarian law in the OPT. Israel is a State Party to the Committee against torture, but has not yet adopted a definition of torture in its legislation and allows for the use of force during interrogations.
In violation of its obligations, the Israeli government and the Israeli Occupying Forces encourage and use, respectively, torture and cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment against Palestinians in the OPT extensively and routinely through various means.
- At present, approximately 6800 Palestinian prisoners are detained in Israeli jails. The Israeli Government refuses to recognize them as political prisoners and treats them as criminals.
- In July 2017, 450 Palestinians were being held in administrative detention—three of them are members of the Palestinian Legislative Council.
- People are being locked up, sometimes over years—without being charged or taken to court. International minimum standards such as the right to be visited by relatives are not applied, some prisoners are not allowed to see their family or spouses for many years; independent reviews of the administrative detention order do not take place.
- Administrative detention is applied by Israeli authorities systematically. The Israeli practice to use administrative detention to collectively punish the Palestinian population contradicts international law (Geneva Convention). Torture and mistreatment are prevailing in Israeli prisons and even children are not spared: in July 2017, 300 children were detained in Israeli prisons!
- The imprisonment of people without granting them even the most basic rights must end!
The “freedom and dignity” strikes
1500 Palestinian prisoners participated in the strike called Freedom and Dignity, which began on April 17 and lasted for 41 days. Hundreds of them were transferred to prison clinics or to Israeli civilian hospitals in the last week after their health deteriorated, including the leaders of the strike themselves.
The most prominent demand of the prisoners is the end of administrative detention and moreover the cessation of the policy of preventing regular family visits, the end of the medical negligence against sick prisoners and allowing the installation of a public telephone in each prison for human communication between prisoners and their families.
We would be very pleased if you send us a reply in due course, please also feel free to contact us for further information.
Honorary President Professor em. in international law MdB DIE LINKE Coordination Committee
Adv. Felicia Langer Prof. Dr.Norman Paech Annette Groth Dr. Khaled Hamad
The coordination of the-European-Alliance-in-Defence-of-Palestinian-Detainees
C/O: Liegnitzstr. 28, 53721 Siegburg, Germany,
Tel: 00491715411168, Fax: 0049-2241-2653744, [email protected]