The Condition of Palestinian Women and Children in Israeli Jails

By
Silvia Nicolaou-Garcia
Researcher, Middle East Monitor, MEMO, London

Overview

• The treatment of Palestinian detainees in Israeli prisons does not comply with international human rights or with international humanitarian law standards. This report examines how these international law violations are accentuated in the cases of detained women and children.
  
  
• Due to the fact that women and children are vulnerable subjects, they are often at risk of violence, abuse and denial of their rights at every stage of the criminal justice process.¹ The risks faced by Palestinian children in detention are having a damaging impact on their development and violate established principles of juvenile justice. In the same way, there is a complete disregard of gender sensitive health care and hygiene standards for Palestinian female detainees, sometimes resulting in pregnant women being shackled on their way to hospitals to give birth.²
  
  
• This report distinguishes between two types of violations: those occurring during the trial proceedings, including denial of fair trial and administrative detention, and those occurring during detention and in prisons, sometimes amounting to torture.
  
  
• Before addressing these substantive issues, the report reconsiders Israel’s obligations under international law, since an understanding of the latter has a bearing on the categorisation of the former.

Why did the PA Stall the Vote on the Goldstone Report?

By
Silvia Nicolaou-Garcia*
Researcher, Middle East Monitor, MEMO, London

Hours before the UN Human Rights Council voted in Geneva to endorse the Goldstone Report the Palestinian Authority (PA) bowed to US and Israeli pressure and agreed to defer the vote until March 2010.

Both the Obama administration and Israel have exerted intense pressure on the Palestinian delegation to drop its accusations on Israeli war crimes committed during its 22 day military onslaught on the Gaza Strip beginning on 27th December 2008. Benyamin Netanyahu, Israel's Prime Minister, in particular claimed that, "if the Goldstone report is referred to the international court at the Hague, it will stop the peace process". Surely, a more in-depth analysis of this curious remark is required.
 

European Efforts to Apply the Principle of Universal Jurisdiction Against Israeli Officials

by
Silvia Nicolaou Garcia
Researcher, Middle East Monitor, MEMO, London

Summary Points:

• Universal Jurisdiction is a principle in international law whereby states claim criminal jurisdiction over persons whose alleged crimes were committed outside the boundaries of the prosecuting state, regardless of nationality, country of residence, or any other relation with the prosecuting country
  
  
• Universal jurisdiction is a very powerful tool in the context of the Israel/Palestine conflict, since the Israeli Supreme Court has not adequately conducted investigations of violations of international law. Since 2001 some European countries have tried to prosecute alleged Israeli war criminals under the principle of universal jurisdiction. Belgium, the UK, Spain, Turkey and Norway are some of these countries.