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Dear friends,
I am writing to share an important update with you concerning our activities against torture in the international arena. A few months ago, we submitted an alternative report to the UN Human Rights Committee, which monitors the implementation of the United Nations Convention on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) in member countries and prepares recommendations in this field. We suggested a series of recommendations to the Committee in response to human rights violations in Israel regarding the use of torture. The Committee adopted these recommendations in full, and they now appear in its official recommendations to the State of Israel.
Among other remarks, the Committee expressed concern that the State of Israel is continuing to use the “necessity defense” as a legal justification for torture, and that it has not yet established an independent monitoring mechanism for interrogation facilities. The Committee added that although the ISA interrogation rooms are monitored by CCTV cameras, it was concerned that no documentation was preserved of the video footage from the interrogations themselves, other than a brief memorandum. As a result, torture victims are left without any audio or visual documentation they could present as evidence in court. We at PCATI are working to solve this issue by pushing for policy change in the Knesset.
The Committee expressed concern regarding reports of the widespread and systematic use of torture against Palestinians, including children, and the abuse of Palestinians by Israeli prison guards and security forces, both during their arrest and while they are held in incarceration. The Committee mentioned the use of physical and psychological violence, sleep deprivation, coercive and stressful physical positions, and protracted isolation – including against children and against detainees with mental or psychosocial disabilities. The Committee further noted with concern the extremely low rate of criminal investigations, prosecutions, and convictions following allegations of torture and abuse. It urged to ensure that all allegations of torture and abuse are investigated promptly, impartially, thoroughly, and effectively. And most significantly, the Committee called on the State of Israel to urgently legislate a Law prohibiting Torture, as it had promised to do time and time again. |
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Also, last week the US State Department published its yearly report on the hr situation in Israel. These recommendations of the UN Commission on Human Rights were followed by the publication of a report by the US State Department regarding the human rights situation in Israel. The report echoes the Committee’s findings and responses regarding the alarming picture of torture in Israel. The report quotes extensively from an important study conducted by four experts, members of PCATI’s volunteer Forensic Group, reviewing a series of tragic cases in which people with mental disabilities were killed by security forces. These include the case of the late Eyad al-Hallaq, a young Palestinian on the autism spectrum who was shot to death by Border Guard combat officers at Damascus Gate two years ago.
The recommendations of the UN Commission and the report of the US State Department are important achievements in PCATI’s struggle, but they are anything but good news. The reports constitute a glaringly bright warning light concerning Israel’s attitude toward human rights and its consistent policy of disregarding and whitewashing complaints of torture.
I am writing just after Passover, the Jewish Holiday celebrating freedom. I hope and believe that the adoption of our recommendations by the Committee, as well as the issues reviewed in the US State Department report, will serve as a wake-up call for decision makers. I hope they will lead to a change in policy and to a ban on the use of torture, thereby helping in our struggle to create a torture-free Israel that protects the rights of all those under its authority – particularly members of the most vulnerable groups in society. It is intolerable to think that at this moment, in a dark room in some facility inside or beyond Israel’s borders, someone sits in our name and on our behalf torturing another human with his hands and tools, shattering the victim’s body, soul, and dignity. My wish for us all is that we will free ourselves of enslavement to these attitudes and practices and find ourselves in a true into a true personal and collective freedom that protects the dignity of every man, woman, and child.
Yours,
Tal Steiner
Executive Director, PCATI
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