Addameer Contends that New Juvenile Court Fails to Bring Israeli Military Court System into Compliance with International Legal Standards
Ramallah, 3 November 2009
Ramallah, 3 November 2009
On Sunday, 1 November 2009, Israeli military court officials marked the inauguration of first-instance military courts for Palestinian children in a ceremony at Ofer Prison in the West Bank. Established on 29 July 2009 with the issuance of Military Order 1644, which was signed by Major General Gadi Shamni, the head of the Israeli army’s Central Command, the courts will be “presided over by a single juvenile-court judge or by a panel led by a juvenile-court judge”.
Although Israel is a State Party to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, which urges the establishment of specialized juvenile courts [Art. 40(3)], Palestinian children have been tried before the same military courts as adults since the 1967 Israeli occupation of Palestinian territory. There are currently 329 Palestinian children in Israeli detention; more than 700 Palestinian children are tried in the military courts each year. The most common charge levied against children is throwing stones, a crime that is punishable under military law by up to 20 years in prison.
Addameer contends that Military Order 1644 will do little to improve the protection of Palestinian children before the Israeli military legal system – a system that lacks even the most fundamental fair trial guarantees. While the order is noteworthy in that it marks the first movement in 42 years towards at least a veneer of protection for children before the military courts, in practice, it provides only another law in a net of hundreds designed to justify the illegal and immoral treatment of Palestinians under Israeli occupation.
Addameer’s areas of concern with Military Order 1644 and the treatment of children before the military court system include the following:
- Insufficient provisions regarding the selection of qualified judges: According to Military Order 1644, “The head of the military Court of Appeal must appoint judges from the first instance court in the military court. The judges must be prepared to be competent for the post of juvenile judges after the approval of the head of the Court of Appeal to be appointed as juvenile judges for a certain period, which has been identified.” No further information or requirements are provided to indicate how these judges will be qualified to adjudicate cases involving children as young as 12.
- Discretionary language and provisions leave wide room for abuse: The order calls for the juvenile court sessions to be only “as separate as possible” from regular court sessions, and allows the new courts to demand a Civil Administration welfare report on the defendant and his or her family, “if the court believes this necessary to determine the minor’s verdict”. The order also grants authority to the military prosecutor to give permission to override a number of the order’s provisions.
- No correction for age discrimination against Palestinian children: Criminal liability begins at age 12 for both Palestinians and Israelis. However, Palestinians under the military court system are tried as adults at age 16, while the Israeli justice system, by comparison and in accordance with the preponderance of national juvenile justice systems, sets the age of majority at 18.
- Insufficient correction for illegal sentencing procedures: International law clearly provides that an individual accused of a criminal offense must be charged according to his or her age at the time of the alleged offense. However, a Palestinian child’s sentence is decided on the basis of the child’s age at the time of sentencing. This practice enables them to be sentenced as an adult for an offense they may have committed as a child, if they are unfortunate enough to be charged years after an alleged offense, for there is no statute of limitations for Palestinians subject to military law, or simply if they turn 16 while awaiting sentencing. Military Order 1644 enacts no change to this illegal and discriminatory practice.
- No protections during interrogation: Palestinian children arrested by Israeli forces are typically interrogated without a lawyer or family member present. In addition, the majority of children report being subjected to ill-treatment and having forced confessions extracted from them during interrogations. While Israeli law and police orders provide that children detained in Israel are to be interrogated only by police officers specially trained for the task, neither existing practice nor Military Order 1644 provides a comparable provision to ensure the proper treatment of Palestinian children during interrogation. Instead, Palestinian children are interrogated by police or Israeli Security Agency officers, in situations that are highly intimidating, lack any real form of oversight and are rife with abuse. Furthermore, despite recommendations by the UN Committee against Torture in May 2009 that the interrogations should be video recorded, no provisions to this effect have yet been enacted.
Addameer is of the view that no Palestinian child should ever be tried in military courts that do not provide all fundamental fair trial standards. Addameer also contends that, although it remains to be seen how Military Order 1644 will be implemented in practice, the order contains insufficient provisions for safeguarding children in the Israeli military court system and fails to bring the courts into line with standards required under international law.
For more information, please contact:
Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association
P. O. Box: 17338, Jerusalem, Israel
Tel: +972 (0)2 296 0446 / 297 0136
Fax: +972 (0)2 296 0447
Email: [email protected]
P. O. Box: 17338, Jerusalem, Israel
Tel: +972 (0)2 296 0446 / 297 0136
Fax: +972 (0)2 296 0447
Email: [email protected]