REPORT SUMMARY:

Adalah - The Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel, Addameer - Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association, Al Mezan Centre for Human Rights, and Physicians for Human Rights - Israel (PHRI), and the Public Committee against Torture in Israel (PCATI)––human rights organizations based in Israel, the West Bank, and the Gaza Strip––submit this report to the UN Committee Against Torture (the Committee) regarding the State of Israel’s failures in implementing and lack of compliance with the Convention Against Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment and Punishment (CAT). This coalition of human rights organizations regrettably reiterates many of the same concerns articulated in the previous submissions to the Committee, observing a lack of improvement since Israel’s May 2016 review.

In advance of the Committee’s  examination of Israel in May 2016, the organizations represented here  submitted  reports  to  this   Committee, expressing  grave  concerns  about  the  continued presence of torture and ill treatment and the lack of accountability for such allegations. After conducting its May 2016 review of Israel, the Committee invited the State party to share its plans for   implementing   recommendations   for   paras.   21,   23   (a),   25   (b)  and 31  (b). These recommendations concerned medical care for prisoners, and issues of administrative detention and the Unlawful Combatants Law, solitary confinement, and interrogation. Israel’s follow-up report regarding these recommendations, due 13 May 2017, has not been submitted by the state  to the Committee as of this writing. This delay has imposed an additional burden for the organizations represented here in writing this follow-up to the recommendations.

This report provides information regarding each of the aforementioned recommendations. In addition, the coalition emphasizes that despite the representations made by the Israeli delegation before the Committee regarding the state’s work to codify the crime of torture in the national legislation, no progress has been made in this area. Indeed, in spite of repeated requests by PCATI, a draft bill has not been published. Thus, the State is continuing to fail to comply with CAT and with the recommendations of the Committee. We note here that over 16 months after Israel first committed to publicizing a draft memo, no further steps have been taken; indeed, we are still unsure if the State plans to incorporate the absolute nature of the prohibition on torture, including psychological torture as well as the right to rehabilitation.

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