Adalah to Prisons Authority: Cancel Decision to Stop Providing Political Prisoners with Personal Hygiene Supplies

On 16 April 2003, Adalah sent a letter to the head of the Israel Prisons Authority (IPA), Ms. Orit Adato, seeking the cancellation of the IPA's recent decision to stop providing personal hygiene supplies to political prisoners. The majority of political prisoners are Palestinian citizens of Israel or Palestinian residents of the Occupied Territories.

Adalah Staff Attorney Abeer Baker sent the letter after Adalah received numerous complaints from political prisoners that the IPA had informed them that it would no longer provide soap, laundry powder, toothpaste, toothbrushes, shaving brushes, shaving soap, razors and toilet paper. According to the new policy, the prisoners and their families would be responsible for providing these supplies. Prisoners stated in their complaints that the IPA claimed that the new policy had been implemented as a result of budget cuts.

In the letter, Adalah argued that the IPA's decision violates its own internal regulations, which state that all prisoners must be given personal hygiene supplies, without exception. The regulations identify specific supplies to be provided, and a schedule for their distribution to prisoners.

Preventing prisoners from maintaining adequate personal hygiene also constitutes a violation of the constitutional right to dignity, protected by the Basic Law: Human Dignity and Liberty (1992). The IPA's new policy, Adalah argued, will have a negative impact on the physical and psychological health of the prisoners.

The fact that an individual is imprisoned does not permit the violation of his or her basic human rights. Adalah cited Israeli Supreme Court precedent, which emphasizes the obligation of the IPA to protect prisoners' human rights. Moreover, according to Supreme Court case law, budget cuts may not be used as an excuse for the violation of human rights.

Adalah also argued that the new policy discriminates against political prisoners, as criminal prisoners still receive these basic necessities. There is no relationship between the classification of a prisoner and the prisoner's right to maintain personal hygiene. Adalah further stressed that the IPA's new policy violates the United Nations Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners, particularly rules 12-16.

Adalah requested prompt action on this matter by the IPA, in light of the fact that political prisoners began a hunger strike in protest against the new policy on 14 April 2003.