Organization seeks review of Israeli prison child abuse claims
By Polly Johnson
Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East
![Reports of child abuse have surfaced. [Source: Tehran Times].](http://www.tehrantimes.com/News/10884/01_CHILDABUSE.jpg)
DCI has collected more than one hundred sworn affidavits from Palestinian children claiming mistreatment. Fourteen of the statements reveal sexual assault and abuse by the soldiers. The DCI said that such practices violate international law and children’s rights.
Nearly every minor was handcuffed for long periods of time, according to the one hundred statements taken by DCI. Many were blindfolded for extended periods of time. Boys as young as thirteen said they were threatened with rape if they did not confess.
Al Jazeera was able to interview some of the children, who confirmed the mistreatment by their captors. One child said he was bound, blindfolded, and placed on the floor of the vehicle taking him to prison. Many said that they were often held for hours without food or drink. They were also told that the soldier who beat them was the same one to whom they had to confess.
Parents do not typically want to come forward to report the abuse, distrustful of the system that is abusing their children.
Israel has rejected DCI’s claims and has said that such practices are consistent with international law, adding that any claims related to abuse or violence should be formally raised at trial or in a complaint.
Different laws apply to Palestinians in the West Bank and in Gaza. All Palestinians, including minors and adults, are tried in military courts. Further, Palestinian children are not permitted to see their lawyers until they are in court.
Each year, about seven hundred Palestinian minors aged twelve to eighteen are arrested in Israel. There are approximately 340 Palestinian children in Israeli jails. Sixty percent of them have been charged with throwing stones. There is no appeals process for decisions by Israeli military courts.
For more information, please see:
Al Jazeera – Israel faces child-abuse claims – 31 May 2010
Tehran Times – Israel faces child abuse claims – 31 May 2010
Bruneinews.net – Child sex abuse alleged in Israeli juvenile prisons – 30 May 2010
Palestine Note – Rights group: Israeli officers sexually assaulted children – 30 May 2010
Haaretz.com – Over 100 Palestinian minors reported abuse in IDF, police custody in 2009 – 28 May 2010
Chavez Under Pressure to Drop Charges Against Arbitrarily Detained Judge
By Ricky Zamora
Impunity Watch Reporter, South America
BOGOTA, Colombia – The arbitrary detention of Venezuelan Judge, Maria Lourdes Afiuni, is a blow to judicial independence and the rule of both Venezuelan and International Law, says the Special Rapporteur on the Independence for Judges and Lawyers, Gabriela Carina Knaul de Albuquerque e Silva.
In December of 2009, the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detentions declared the pre-trial detention of Venezuelan banker, Eligio Cedeño, to be arbitrary. Pursuant to the Working Group’s findings, Judge Afiuni conditionally released him. Minutes after issuing her decision, she was arrested for upholding Venezuelan and International Law.
Chavez’s government is seeking corruption charges against the Judge even though prosecutors explicitly stated that Afiuni had not received any payment or promise of payment. Afiuni remains in pre-trial detention.
The Venezuelan military police have also detained Cedeño’s defense lawyer and have held him under arrest without charges at intelligence headquarters.
“Afiuni’s decision to release Cedeño was expressly authorized in Article 264 of Venezuela’s Code of Criminal Procedure, which requires control judges to review periodically all pretrial preventative measures and grants judges complete discretion to modify pretrial detention for less stringent measures,” reports London-based attorney, Robert Amsterdam.
“Throwing a judge in prison for doing her job and issuing a decision that upholds fundamental rights protected under both Venezuelan and International Law is not something you’d expect in a functioning democracy,” said José Miguel Vivanco, Americas Director at Human Rights Watch. “Once again the Chavez Government has demonstrated its fundamental disregard for the principle of judicial independence,” he added.
Vivanco noted that Afiuni’s detention, taken together with the dramatic erosion of judicial independence in Venezuela under Chavez, makes it highly likely that she will receive an unfair trial
Human Rights Watch reports that on January 11th, the Inter American Commission on Human Rights ruled that Afiuni was entitled to protective measures and ordered Venezuela to be proactive in protecting Afiuni’s life and physical integrity and to transfer her to a safe place. The Venezuelan Government has yet to comply with the order.
In 2004, President Chavez and his supporters executed a political takeover of the Supreme Court. Since then, the Court has not been able to be a check on Executive power as it has since been comprised of government supporters. The result has been that the Court has failed to uphold fundamental rights of the Venezuelan constitution in cases involving government efforts to limit freedom of expression and association – fundamental rights.
For more information, please see:
HRW – Venezuela: Human Rights Watch Oral Statement Before the Human Rights Council – 03 June 2010
HRW – Venezuela: Stop Attacks on Judicial Independence – 08 April 2010
Robert Amsterdam – Judge Maria Afiuni’s Decision Cited UN Working Group Opinion – 15 December 2009
Australia Plans to Transfer 750 Asylum Seekers to Mainland
By Joseph Juhn
Impunity Watch Reporter, Oceania
SYDNEY, Australia – The Australian government plans to transfer all asylum seekers currently located in Christmas Island to a mainland detention center. These refugees – about 600 Afghans and 150 Sri Lankans – have arrived by boat since the suspension took effect in April of this year.
Australia’s immigration minister Chris Evans says the government is looking for mainland sites to accommodate the asylum seekers.
“It is our intention to take that cohort probably in the first instance to Curtin where we’re increasing our capacity, but we’ll obviously make judgments based on individuals,” he said.
Senator Evans says he hopes the improving situation in Afghanistan and Sri Lanka – where most of refugees come from – will soon allow the Australian government to send some of the asylum seekers back.
“The experience we’ve had since the suspension has confirmed what we were seeing in the few months before that – that we’re getting a much higher refusal rate,” he said.
“Many of the people who are coming to this country are no longer found to be refugees and we’re able to – at the end of their processes – potentially return them.”
For more information, please see:
Radio New Zealand – Asylum seekers being moved to mainland – 3 June 2010
Radio Australia – 750 asylum seekers head to Australian mainland centres – 3 June 2010
ABC News – 750 asylum seekers heading for mainland centres – 3 June 2010
Egyptian Court Upholds Decision To Strip Citizenship of Men Married to Israeli Women
Egyptian-Israeli marriage restrictions threaten individual personal freedoms and the two state’s tenuous peace agreement.
By Alyxandra Stanczak
Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East
CAIRO, Egypt– Yesterday, the State Counsel’s Supreme Administrative Court, Egypt’s supreme court, upheld a decision to strip the citizenship from an Egyptian man who married an Israeli Jewish woman. Nabih el-Wahsh, the lawyer who brought the case to court, said this decision is aimed at protecting Egyptian youth and Egypt’s national security.
Grounds for this decision were found in a 2008 fatwa, or religious edict, issued by Egyptian Islamic scholar Sheikh Farahat Al-Mongy, which commented on the sinfulness of Egyptians who marry Israelis. Shortly after this fatwa, a proposition was made during Egypt’s 2008 People’s Assembly (the lower house of Egypt’s Parliament) by three members who proposed a law to strip the citizenship of Egyptians who marry Israelis of any faith. Despite the timing of the ruling, which coincides with Israel’s hostile actions against an aid flotilla headed for Gaza, this decision is not meant as a direct response to that action; rather it is purportedly designed to solidify national security concerns.
Approximately 30,000 Egyptian men are married to Israeli women. The court asked the Ministry of the Interior to present for approval all marriages between Egyptians and Israelis to the cabinet in order to give consideration to national security and personal freedom. If the court’s recommendations arising from this case are followed, it would necessarily result in a threat to personal freedom guaranteed under the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Article 16 – the right to family protection (which includes marriage) by society and State. This decision also could result in an arbitrary denial of marriage rights by Egypt’s state body under the guise of national security.
The implementation of this decision would have a far-reaching effect – not only on individualcitizens of both Israel and Egypt, but could serve to undermine the tenuous peace between the two countries. Egypt’s President Sadat and Israel’s Prime Minister Begin entered into a peace treaty initially in 1979, which has provided the foundation for later security arrangements.
This decision shows what Egyptian lawyer and human rights activist Negad al-Boraldescribes as mixed messages about Israel which result in “the [Egyptian] president congratulat[ing] Israel’s president in national holidays yet it punishes the people for having relationships with Israel.”
For more information, please see:
Associated Press – Egypt restricts marriage to Israelis – 6 June 2010
Al Jazeera News – Egypt targets marriages to Israelis – 5 June 2010
BBC News – Cairo court rules on Egyptians married to Israeli women – 5 June 2010
Jewish Journal – Egypt-Israel love fatwa highlights split on peace – 11 January 2008