A statement for immediate release issued by
Human Right and Democracy Media Center “SHAMS”
On the occasion of International Day against Torture and other cruel degrading and inhuman treatment
Towards achieving a legislative framework that criminalizes torture
“SHAMS” Center condemns the ongoing systematic acts of torture as well as unethical and inhumane measures practiced by Israel the occupying Power, its soldiers and investigators against Palestinian prisoners numbering about 6000 detainees including 250 children, 54 women & girls, 27 journalists, 21 detainees of Arabic nationalities, 5 PLC members and 450 administrative detainees. The center also condemns attempts by official Israeli frameworks, represented by the Minister of Internal Security and the extreme right parties, to legitimize the practices of torture and regulate them under new frameworks, after their first legitimacy by issuing the decision of the Israeli Supreme Court in 1996, which allowed the interrogators to use what it called “moderate physical pressure” against the Palestinian detainees. Moreover, the center condemns the denial by the Occupying Power of the UN Subcommittee on the Prevention of Torture from conducting its field visit to the Occupied Palestinian Territories and refusing to grant its members entry visas.
“SHAMS” Center confirms that Palestine’s accession to a number of international treaties and conventions, including the Convention against Torture in 2014 and its Optional Protocol by the end of 2017, a step previously recommended by the center, represents an important and strategic step towards the prevention and protection against torture, ensuring redress for victims and holding the perpetrators accountable. And at the same time, it constitutes a formal declaration of the readiness of the State of Palestine to open up the detention centers for monitoring, to ensure that it does not occur, and to enhance the rejection of torture through all apparatuses, policies and legislation of the state.
“SHAMS” Center in this context calls the PNA, in accordance with its international obligations for investigating all complaints received by Palestinian human rights organizations related to affidavits of people claiming to have been tortured. Besides, investigating human rights reports on torture in some detention centers clearly, transparently and impartially, to find out the truth, and take the legal requirement deterrent to those involved. Providing that torture is prohibited by the international community under a UN resolution, based on General Assembly resolution No. 52/149 dated December 12 of 1997, with a view to the total elimination of torture and ensuring the effective fulfillment of the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in December 1984.
“SHAMS” Center calls for the unification of the political will through rapid adoption of a modern and integrated legislative framework that criminalizes torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment as the best means to combat impunity. Besides, ensuring that this new legislative framework includes the obligation to compensation and redress for victims, considering torture as an imprescriptible terrible offence.
“END”