UN: Spike in Israeli detention of Palestinian minors during COVID-19

Legal proceedings are on hold, almost all prison visits have been cancelled and children are denied face-to-face meeting with families and lawyers, officials said.

By TOVAH LAZAROFF
Prison cell block (photo credit: Wikimedia Commons)
Prison cell block
(photo credit: Wikimedia Commons)
The number of Palestinian minors held by Israel in detention during the COVID-19 pandemic has increased, UN officials said on Monday as they called for the release of such children from jail in light of the pandemic.
“We are seriously concerned over the continued detention of Palestinian children by Israeli authorities,” said UN officials working in the Palestinian territories: Humanitarian Coordinator Jamie McGoldrick, UNICEF Special Representative Genevive Boutin and head of the UN Human Rights Office, James Heenan.
“Children in detention face heightened risk of contracting COVID-19, with physical distancing and other preventive measures often absent or difficult to achieve,” they said.
“At the end of March, 194 Palestinian children were detained by the Israeli authorities in prisons and detention centers, mainly in Israel, according to data released by the Israeli Prison Service,” they explained.
That number is higher than the monthly average of children detained in 2019, they added, noting that many of those held have not been convicted of any offense and are being held in pre-trial detention.
“The rights of children to protection, safety and well-being must be upheld at all times,” they said. The officials noted that a commitment to use detention only as a method of last resort was enshrined in the Convention on the Rights of the Child, a treaty to which both Israel and the Palestinian Authority were signatories.
During a pandemic, states should pay increased attention to children’s protection needs and rights, and the best interests of children should be a primary consideration in all actions taken by governments.
Restrictions in place since the start of COVID-19 have made the situation more difficult, they said. Legal proceedings have been on hold, almost all prison visits have been cancelled and children are denied face-to-face meeting with families and lawyers, the officials added.
“For children awaiting trial, these pressures could put them under increased pressure to incriminate themselves, pleading guilty to be released faster,” officials said.
They called on Israel to release the minors, end all such detentions and “to do so immediately.”