Human Rights and Democracy Media Center “SHAMS” believes that at a time when the new deadly COVID-19 Corona virus continues to spread throughout the world, especially in “Israel”, the occupying power continues to violate the rules of international law and refuse to release child prisoners despite the persistent reports of Israeli jailers and investigators being infected with the epidemic, and serious concerns for life of (5000) Palestinian prisoners, especially children, who number about 200 children detained in Israeli prisons, of whom (4) are children against whom illegal administrative detention orders have been issued.
On the Palestinian Child’s Day, which falls on April 5 every year, “SHAMS” Center affirms that the Israeli colonialism continues to ignore the calls, appeals and demands for the release of child prisoners, who are being held in prisons and conditions that do not meet the minimum elements of their rights as children, which are protected rights in particular under the Geneva Conventions and their 1977 Protocols as children. As well as the general protection framework in international law for them as civilians. “Israel” continues to persist in violating international law.
“SHAMS” Center denounces in the strongest and harsh terms the Israeli policy based on the constant disregard for international law and binding human rights conventions and charters, which makes Israel treat itself as an entity above the law and endangering the lives of Palestinian children. It sheds light on the incident in which the administration of “Ofer” prison detained two children of the prisoners instead of rushing to release them under these dangerous circumstances.
“SHAMS” Center states that the Israeli colonialism has increased the frequency of its arrest of Palestinian children in the recent period, as the number of children arrested during the year 2019 alone reached (899) children, a number of whom were released later, as part of the violent colonial system that targets all components of the Palestinian people, including children, the occupation authorities have also issued administrative detention orders against four children. The number of child prisoners in the Israeli occupation prisons is currently 200 children (under 18 years old). Violent practices against child prisoners have also increased, which intensified during the current year 2020 and witnessed a high rate of isolation, threats and attacks during transport and transportation without representatives and denial of family visits, so the Corona crisis came and added a new serious violation to the series of accumulated Israeli violations.
“SHAMS” Center calls on the specialized international organizations, led by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the UN special rapporteurs and international human rights civil society organizations, to urgently intervene and pressure to release the child prisoners before exposing them to a greater and irreversible danger. It also calls on the High Contracting Parties to oblige “Israel” to implement and respect these conventions and respect the rights of prisoners, and to form an international fact-finding committee from the states party to the Geneva Conventions in accordance with Article 90 of Protocol I with the aim of investigating the conditions of prisoners in general and child prisoners in particular in Israeli prisons.