Protecting the Rights of Palestinian Minors Detained by Israel in the West Bank The project will expose the procedures used by the Israeli military and security agencies in the arrest and interrogation of Palestinian minors in the West Bank and lead to the preservation of the minors' rights to due process and freedom from abuse and intimidation.  It will require Israeli authorities to detain Palestinian minors in accordance with Israel's Youth Law, its obligations under international humanitarian law, and its commitments as a state party to the Convention on the Rights of the Child.  The project will promote the accountability of Israeli authorities for violence and violations of rights of Palestinians under occupation, particularly the young.  The project will also assist family members of detained Palestinian minors to visit their children, siblings and grandchildren.  In flagrant violation of its obligations under the 4th Geneva Convention, Israel detains most of the Palestinians, including minors, it arrests in detention facilities in Israel.  In addition to the harm and disorientation this practice causes arrested minors, it creates numerous obstacles and significant hardship to family members from the West Bank who wish to enter Israel to visit their loved ones.

The project will require the detention of minors to be by invitation and prior notification, during daylight hours only, and with the full presence of a parent or guardian or attorney at all stages of the detention, including interrogation only by a trained youth interrogator.  It will insist upon the absolute prohibition on the use of physical and psychological abuse at any stage during the arrest, interrogation and detention of minors.  While the Convention on the Rights of the Child ratified by Israel in 1991 and the UN Rules on the Protection of Juveniles Deprived of their Liberty (Havana Rules) of 1990 are the basic tools for protection, the Israel Youth Law incorporates many of their elements and expands upon them to specify how these rights are to be guaranteed and proper conditions of detention provided.

The vast majority of Palestinian minors detained by Israel in the West Bank are males, but their arrest and mistreatment affects all of their family members, of whom an average of 50 percent are women and girls.  By exposing the treatment of their detained sons and siblings and pressing for change, the project will relieve suffering and provide recourse to address wrongs to all family members.

The project will provide youthful victims who request it with the legal assistance needed to seek redress for the harm done to them.  Through direct correspondence with the military, attorney general and other Israeli duty bearers, and through principle and public interest petitions in Israeli courts, the project will assist the larger Palestinian community to challenge Israel's unlawful practices and demand change.

In addition to affidavits taken from Palestinian minors who experience arrest, interrogation and detention by Israel, a Freedom of Information Act petition will help to further reveal the nature and extent of Israel's unlawful practices in detaining Palestinian minors in the West Bank.  Documentation of casework and website dissemination of information -- in Hebrew, Arabic and English -- will provide data and analysis for media and public advocacy and diplomatic démarches, bringing pressure to bear for change.
Seventy to 80 Palestinian minors detained by Israel in the West Bank and their 400 family members will see Israel's routine, unlawful and harmful practices during arrest, interrogation and detention of minors exposed and challenged in the Israeli judicial system.  Through the project's legal challenges and detailed, fact-based reporting, Israel will be pressured to changes its illegal practices and respect its commitments to the Palestinian population under occupation, especially its most vulnerable members: children and their families who undergo the trauma of arrest and detention.