UN rights panel puts spotlight on Israel |
|
| Tuesday, 20 November
2001 19:06 (ET)
UN rights panel puts spotlight on
Israel GENEVA, Switzerland, Nov. 20 (UPI) -- Israel was questioned Tuesday by
a U.N. panel against torture about alleged cases of brutality and other
abuses inflicted on Palestinians by members of its security forces,
particularly in the occupied Palestinian territories.
The Canadian chairman of the 10-member expert panel, Peter Thomas
Burns, asked Israel to explain alleged violations including torture of
detainees and the destruction of homes in the occupied territories.
The U.N. panel oversees the 126 member countries of the Convention
Against Torture.
One of the mandatory obligations of member countries, which includes
Israel, is to present periodically reports on national efforts to put the
accord's provisions into practice.
Yaakov Levy, Israel's ambassador to the United Nations, told the panel.
Israel law strictly forbids all forms of torture or other ill treatment."
He said despite the pressing difficulties facing Israel in its struggle
against terrorism it "remains fully committed to respecting its
international obligations to the human rights treaties."
Prior to the session, human rights group Amnesty International said in
a statement it was concerned about reported incidents of torture prolonged
incommunicado detention and word that members of the Israel security
forces appear to benefit from impunity for torture or-ill treatment of
Palestinians.
Burns, a professor of criminal law at the University of British
Colombia, probed Israel about reports that a 16-year-old Palestinian was
stripped, doused with cold water, had his head shoved in a toilet bowl and
forced to sign a confession written in Hebrew which he could not
understand.
The Canadian expert also asked why the destruction of homes in the
occupied territories was not a collective punishment and why no
explanations, investigations or compensation reportedly followed
complaints from those whose homes were destroyed.
"More than 500 homes have been demolished in the occupied territories
during the past year, making a minimum of 2,000 Palestinians homeless, the
vast majority of them children," the Amnesty statement said.
Panel experts also asked Israel what was the justification for the
targeted killing of suspected Palestinian militants, and if such acts
amounted to extra-judicial executions.
A report by amnesty "Broken lives -- a year of intifada," says extra
judicial killings carried out by Israel constitute a "grave breach" of
international humanitarian law.
The report also points out, however, extra judicial executions carried
out by the Palestinian Authority have not received the publicity of those
carried out by Israel.
It adds that failure by the PA to bring to justice those alleged
militants accused of carrying out these killings "may be interpreted as
permission, if not encouragement, to individuals, including security
services, to commit extra judicial executions."
The panel is expected to present its conclusions at the end of the
proceedings on Nov. 23. |
THE END
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