UN Child Rights Committee Reviews Israel

03/06/2013

On 3 June 2013, Adalah attended the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child’s (CRC) review of Israel in Geneva, Switzerland. The Committee is examining Israel’s State Report submitted in 2010 and its replies to the CRC’s “List of Issues” filed in May 2013 on the implementation of its obligations under the Convention on the Rights of the Child, to which Israel is a party.

Adalah participated in an NGO briefing, together with human rights NGO partners, on 3 June and observe the review session. Adalah Attorney Sawsan Zaher, Adalah’s representative to the session, raised key concerns regarding Israel’s failure to comply with the CRC towards Palestinian citizens of Israel. Among other issues, Adalah discussed Israel’s responses to the Committee’s questions regarding:

The lack of legislation, policies and programmes to prevent discrimination against Palestinian Arab citizens (Question 1);
The ban on family unification due to the Citizenship and Entry into Israel Law and the law’s effect on children’s rights; (Question 2);
The gaps in health indicators between Jewish and Arab children, including the lack of health clinics and access to water for Arab Bedouin in the Naqab/Negev (Question 8);
The higher rates of child poverty in Arab communities compared to Jewish communities in Israel (Question 12);
The gap in dropout rates, enrolment rates, quality, facilities and allocated resources between the Hebrew and Arabic education systems (Question 13).

Adalah also discussed legal issues concerning arrests and interrogations of Palestinian children in occupied East Jerusalem and the West Bank by Israeli forces (Question 16).

See also:

Adalah’s NGO Report to the CRC – Submitted October 2012

Press Release – UN Committee on the Rights of the Child Questions Israel’s Policies Against Palestinians – 25 October 2012

Schedule and documents for Israel’s review session at the Committee on the Rights of the Child on 3 June 2013

Bedoiun children are among Israel's most vulnerable