UN Committee condemns Israel for grave violations of Palestinian children’s rights in Israel and the OPT

25/09/2024

In its review of Israel, the UN Children’s Rights Committee called for urgent actions by Israel to: Address the ongoing violence in Gaza, imploring Israel to comply with the ICJ’s provisional measures in the genocide case; Ensure accountability for violations by Israel's armed forces against children; Repeal discriminatory laws; End policies that constitute racial segregation and apartheid; and Remove barriers to Palestinian children's access to education and family unification.

Adalah welcomes the Concluding Observations on Israel issued on 19 September 2024 by the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC). The CRC is composed of 18 independent human rights and legal experts who oversee the implementation of the International Convention on the Rights of the Child (ICRC). Israel ratified the ICRC in 1991, and, like all State Parties, undergoes periodic review of its compliance by the CRC.

The latest review of Israel by the Committee took place on 3-4 September 2024, with Adalah Attorney Lubna Tuma representing the organization at the session. Adalah submitted two detailed reports to the Committee, one in January 2023 and one in August 2024.

Click here to read Adalah’s 2024 report, and here for the 2023 report.

Click here to read the CRC’s 2024 Concluding Observations on Israel

The CRC expressed a strong stance against Israel’s ongoing genocidal assault on Gaza and the targeting of Palestinian children. The Committee noted that it was, “gravely concerned about the outrageously high number of children in Gaza who continue to be killed, maimed, injured, missing, displaced, orphaned, and subjected to famine, malnutrition, and disease. The Gazan population has been displaced multiple times as a result of the State party’s indiscriminate and disproportionate attacks on Gaza, using explosive weapons with wide-area effects in densely populated areas and denying humanitarian access. At least 1 million children have been displaced, 21,000 children reported missing, 20,000 children have lost one or both parents, 17,000 children are unaccompanied or separated from their families in Gaza, dozens have died due to malnutrition, and 3,500 children are at risk of death from malnutrition and lack of food.” The Committee also urged Israel to comply with the International Court of Justice’s (ICJ) provisional orders in the South Africa vs. Israel genocide case, ensure accountability for violations of the ICRC, guarantee safe, unobstructed, and unconditional access to health services, and fully cooperate with UNRWA and UN mechanisms.

The Committee further acknowledged the findings of the ICJ in its Advisory Opinion concerning the illegality of the Occupation, in particular regarding the West Bank and East Jerusalem, according to which Israel’s policies breach the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD) in relation to racial discrimination and apartheid. The Committee called on Israel to comply with the ICJ’s advisory opinions. It also expressed concern over the “persistent discrimination in law” against Palestinian children in Israel, children in the OPT, and others. The Committee urged Israel to “bring an end to such legislation and measures that amount to racial segregation or apartheid”, specifically citing Israel’s 2018 Jewish Nation-State Law, which Adalah and other groups challenged before Israel’s Supreme Court.

The Committee’'s Concluding Observations reflected many violations emphasized by Adalah in its reports and communications with Committee members.

It specifically addressed two pieces of legislation that Adalah is challenging before Israeli authorities. The Committee urged Israel to “urgently repeal legislative measures that are contrary to international human rights law,” including “amendments to the Unlawful Combatants Law, allowing for detention without an arrest warrant for up to 20 days and denial of detainees’ access to legal counsel for up to 75 days”. Official state information indicates that several children were held under this indefinite administrative detention law. These amendments violate a broad range of international law provisions and create conditions conducive to violations of the prohibition against enforced disappearances. Several human rights organizations, led by the Public Committee Against Torture in Israel, along with Adalah, have petitioned Israel's Supreme Court against this amendment, and the case remains pending. The Committee also raised concerns about proposed amendments to the Youth Law, which would allow for the imprisonment of Palestinian children as young as 12 if convicted of acts defined as acts of terrorism and deny children suspected of security offenses the right to legal representation. In its report, Adalah noted a legitimate fear that this law would be applied in a manner that exclusively targets Palestinian minors.

Importantly, the CRC also highlighted the dire conditions in Israel’s prisons and detention facilities, expressing deep concern over reports of torture and ill-treatment of Palestinian children during arrest and detention. The CRC specifically referenced practices such as “solitary confinement; electric shocks; hand and leg restraints; denial of food, water, or toilet access; exposure to harsh elements; verbal and physical violence, including beatings, stripping, sexual violence, and psychological intimidation”. Over the last 11 months, Adalah has legally challenged the inhumane and degrading treatment of Palestinians—both citizens of Israel designated as “security prisoners” by Israel and residents of the OPT—and the widespread use of torture and ill-treatment in detention.

On education, the CRC called for measures to “address the segregation of students based on racial or ethnic grounds and the disparities in access to quality education.” It emphasized the right of Palestinian children, including those in the OPT, to receive an education that respects their cultural identity, language, and values. According to the CRC, this includes, “canceling the prohibitions of using Palestinian textbooks and curricula and withdrawing the ban on education providers who do not recognize the Jewish character of the State and/or commemorate the Nakba”. Adalah raised such concerns in its 2023 report to the CRC, which highlights its ongoing challenges to policies that ban expressions of Palestinian identity in educational institutions.

Finally, the Committee strongly urged Israel to revoke the Citizenship and Entry into Israel Law (Temporary Provision), which severely restricts Palestinian family unification, leading to prolonged separation of children from their parents. Adalah is challenging the ban on Palestinian family unification before Israel’s Supreme Court for the third time in two decades.

In response to the CRC’s findings, Adalah calls on Israel to immediately implement the CRC and comply fully with its Concluding Observations. The international community must act decisively to hold Israel accountable for its ongoing atrocities against Palestinian children. Adalah urges third States to take all necessary measures to enforce the Committee’s recommendations and halt Israel’s systemic violations of the rights of Palestinian children. Adalah further calls for an independent, impartial, and transparent investigation into all breaches of Palestinian children’s rights in Israel and the OPT, holding perpetrators accountable and delivering justice to the victims.