{"id":18923,"date":"2012-05-07T12:00:10","date_gmt":"2012-05-07T11:00:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=18923"},"modified":"2012-05-07T12:38:09","modified_gmt":"2012-05-07T11:38:09","slug":"un-rights-expert-raises-alarm-over-palestinian-prisoners-on-hunger-strike-in-israeli-prisons","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2012\/05\/un-rights-expert-raises-alarm-over-palestinian-prisoners-on-hunger-strike-in-israeli-prisons\/","title":{"rendered":"UN Rights Expert Raises Alarm Over Palestinian Prisoners on Hunger Strike in Israeli Prisons"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong><em>UN Press Release \u2014 Human Rights Council \u2013 2 May 2012<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www2.ohchr.org\/english\/issues\/executions\/index.htm\" title=\"Special Rapporteur\"  target=\"_blank\">Special Rapporteur<\/a> on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967, <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Richard_A._Falk\" title=\"Richard A. Falk\"  target=\"_blank\">Richard Falk<\/a> on Monday [30 Apr 2012] said he was appalled by the \u201ccontinuing human rights violations in Israeli prisons,\u201d amid a massive wave of <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Hunger_strike\" title=\"Hunger strike\"  target=\"_blank\">hunger strikes<\/a> by Palestinian prisoners.<\/p>\n<p>In extraordinary acts of collective nonviolent resistance to abusive conditions connected to Israel\u2019s prolonged occupation of Palestinian territory, more than 1,000 Palestinian prisoners began an open-ended hunger strike on 17 April 2012, Palestinian Prisoners Day. This hunger strike is a protest against unjust arrest procedures, arbitrary detention and bad prison conditions. Prison authorities have reportedly taken punitive measures against those on hunger strike, including by denying them family and lawyer visits, confiscating their personal belongings and placing them in solitary confinement.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI am appalled by the continuing human rights violations in Israeli prisons and I urge the Government of Israel to respect its international human rights obligations towards all Palestinian prisoners,\u201d Falk said. \u201cIsrael must treat those prisoners on hunger strike in accordance with international standards, including by allowing the detainees visits from their family members.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Falk noted that since the 1967 war, estimated 750,000 Palestinians including 23,000 women and 25,000 children have gone through detention in Israeli jails. This constitutes approximately 20 percent of the total Palestinian population in the occupied Palestinian territory or 40 percent of the total male Palestinian population in the occupied Palestinian territory.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIsrael\u2019s wide use of administrative detention flies in the face of international fair trial standards,\u201d Falk said. \u201cDetainees must be able to effectively challenge administrative detention orders, including by ensuring that lawyers have full access to the evidence on which the order was issued.\u201d The Special Rapporteur noted that Israel currently holds around 300 Palestinians in administrative detention.<\/p>\n<p>Falk called on the international community to ensure that Israel complies with international human rights laws and norms in its treatment of Palestinian prisoners.<\/p>\n<p><em>____________________<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>In 2008, the <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/United_Nations_Human_Rights_Council\" title=\"United Nations Human Rights Council\"  target=\"_blank\">UN Human Rights Council<\/a> designated Richard Falk (<a href=\"http:\/\/maps.google.com\/maps?ll=38.8833333333,-77.0166666667&amp;spn=10.0,10.0&amp;q=38.8833333333,-77.0166666667%20%28United%20States%29&amp;t=h\" title=\"United States\"  target=\"_blank\">United States of America<\/a>) as the fifth Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights on Palestinian territories occupied since 1967. The mandate was originally established in 1993 by the <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/United_Nations_Commission_on_Human_Rights\" title=\"United Nations Commission on Human Rights\"  target=\"_blank\">UN Commission on Human Rights<\/a>. Learn more, log on to: <\/em><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/www2.ohchr.org\/english\/countries\/ps\/mandate\/index.htm\" ><em>http:\/\/www2.ohchr.org\/english\/countries\/ps\/mandate\/index.htm<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n<p><em>OHCHR Country Page \u2013 <a href=\"http:\/\/maps.google.com\/maps?ll=31.8833333333,35.2&amp;spn=0.1,0.1&amp;q=31.8833333333,35.2%20%28Palestinian%20territories%29&amp;t=h\" title=\"Palestinian territories\"  target=\"_blank\">Occupied Palestinian Territories<\/a>: <\/em><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/www.ohchr.org\/EN\/countries\/MENARegion\/Pages\/PSIndex.aspx\" ><em>http:\/\/www.ohchr.org\/EN\/countries\/MENARegion\/Pages\/PSIndex.aspx<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>UN Press Release, Human Rights Council, 2 May 2012 &#8211; In extraordinary acts of collective nonviolent resistance to abusive conditions connected to Israel\u2019s prolonged occupation of Palestinian territory, more than 1,000 Palestinian prisoners began an open-ended hunger strike on 17 April 2012, Palestinian Prisoners Day. This hunger strike is a protest against unjust arrest procedures, arbitrary detention and bad prison conditions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[82],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18923","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-united-nations"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18923","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18923"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18923\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18923"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18923"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18923"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}