This event is co-hosted by Aberdeen Trades Union Council and Scottish Palestine Solidarity Aberdeen and is part of a year of activities to mark the 150th anniversary of ATUC in 2018.
Kate Ramsden, UNISON NEC member and a member of the ATUC Executive has dedicated her career to defending children’s rights, and will be introducing a discussion on what we can do from Scotland to stand up for the rights of Palestinian children.
Aberdeen Trades Union Council (ATUC) has submitted a motion to this year's STUC Congress condemning the treatment of Palestinian children in Israeli courts and prisons and calling for action to end the detention and mis-treatment of Palestinian minors by Israel.
The text includes the phrase below.
‘The arrest of 16 year old Ahed
Tamimi has shone a spotlight on Israel’s systematic abuse of minors through the
process of military detention. The treatment of Ahed rightly generated a global
response, but her situation is far from unique. Each year, the Israeli military
arrests and prosecutes around 700 Palestinian children. Palestinian children
encounter ill-treatment and a denial of their basic rights. This is in clear
breach of their rights under the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, to
which Israel is a signatory.’
ADDAMEER Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association:
‘Approximately 700 Palestinian children under the age of 18 from the occupied West Bank are prosecuted every year through Israeli military courts after being arrested, interrogated and detained by the Israeli army. The most common charge levied against children is throwing stones, a crime that is punishable under military law by up to 20 years in prison. Since 2000, more than 12,000 Palestinian children have been detained.
In practice before the military court system, there are no special interrogation procedures for children detained by the Israeli military, nor are there provisions for an attorney or even a family member to be present when a child is questioned. The majority of children report being subjected to ill-treatment and having forced confessions extracted from them during interrogations. Forms of ill-treatment used by the Israeli soldiers during a child’s arrest and interrogation usually include slapping, beating, kicking and violent pushing. Palestinian children are also routinely verbally abused.
Despite recommendations by the UN Committee against Torture in May 2009 that the interrogations should be video recorded, no provisions to this effect have yet been enacted.’
http://www.addameer.org/the_