Hanthala's International Treaty Bodies Monitor
Every year, Hanthala Palestine will provide a overview of the work of the Treaty Bodies, which monitor the implementation of human rights conventions: The Human Rights Committee, the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, the Committee on Elimination of all Forms of Racial Discrimination, the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, the Committee against Torture, and the Committee on the Rights of the Child. Hanthala Palestine will summarise those parts which concern Palestine.
(1) HUMAN RIGHTS COMMITTEE (HRC)
63rd session (Geneva, 13-31 July 1998)The Committee took note of Israel's concern about security, frequent attacks on the civil population, and the fact that Israel is officially at war with several of its neighbours. However, it drew the attention of the Israeli authorities to article 4 of the Pact, which authorises no exception to certain fundamental rights, even in cases of exceptional public danger. The Committee requested Israel to consider the possibility of lifting the state of emergency, in application since independence, and in recognising its responsibility om the application of the Covenant in the Occupied Territories, in Southern Lebanon and the Western Bekaa, both of which are under its control. There are deeply rooted social attitudes, practices and laws which discriminate against Palestinians in Israel (resulting in a significantly lower standard of living than Jews in Israel) and against Palestinians in the Occupied Territories who do not enjoy the same rights and freedoms as Jewish settlers (access to land and water, for instance). Palestinians cannot move freely, their land is confiscated and their homes can be demolished as reprisals. A directive from the Ministry of the Interior states that Palestinians who cannot prove that East Jerusalem was the 'centre of their life' for the last seven years can lose their right to live there. There are also obstacles to family reunions in cases of marriage between Israeli citizens and non-Jewish foreigners.
The Committeee's main concerns: - Brutality by forces of repression: In Israel, the Committee was concerned by the fact that many Palestinians including children, were killed by dispersion weapons used by security forces during demonstrations. This is all the more disturbing when considered alongside a draft law that would deny victims the right to compensation for abuses committed by members of the security forces against Palestinians in the Occupied Territories. During interrogation of presumed terrorists, security forces are allowed to use 'moderate physical pressure', which is nothing more than torture. It is aso disturbing that those kept in administrative detention for security reasons can be held without trial for long periods in order to facilitate negotiations with other parties on the release of Israeli soldiers being held prisoner.
[The Human Rights Committee (HRC) monitor the implementation of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the relevant Protocols.]
(2) COMMITTEE ON ECONOMIC, SOCIAL AND CULTURAL RIGHTS (CESCR)
19th session (Geneva, 16 November- 4 December 1998)The Committeee noted that the general discrimination against Arab subjects (more than 29% of the population) is made worse by the fact that Israel puts excessive stress on the fact that it is a Jewish state, which gives non-Jewish citizens second-class status. The lack of information in the report by Israel on the situation of the Palestinians in Israel and the Occupied Territories is very unedifying. The Committee strenuously condemned the spread of Jewish colonies in the Occupied Territories, the systematic, large-scale confiscation of Palestinian land and property, the forced exclusion of Jalahin Bedouin families from their ancestral land and the sealing-off of the Occupied Territories since 1993. In East Jerusalem, a Ministry of the Interior directive may cause Palestinians to lose their right to live in that part of the city. Their homes are demolished and their land confiscated to the advantage of Jewish residents whose number now exceeds that of Palestinian residents. In the Old City of East Jerusalem, as in the Arab quarters of mixed cities, such as Haifa and Lydda, the Palestinians live in slums because they cannot undertake repair or renovation work without Israeli permission.
Among the 200,000 Palestinian citizens displaced and ddispossessed within Israel, many continue to live in unrecognised villages, without water, electricity, sewage, roads, health care, education or work. Generally-speaking, the non-Jewish population lives in extreme poverty, experiencing malnutrition, separated families, unemployment, infant mortality, no access to the water supply, electricity or sewage, no social services, or health care, including maternity care. The Committee urgently requested Israel to respect the right to self-determination (par.2 art.1 of the Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights), according to which "under no circumstances can a people be deprived of its own means of subsistence". It also exhorted Israel to provide complementary information on the enjoyment of economic, social and cultural rights in the Occupied Territories and in East Jerusalem as well as on the plight of the Jahalin Bedouins. This information will be studied at the 23rd session of the Committee in November-Decemnber 2000.
[The Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (CESCR) monitors the implementation of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.]
(3) COMMITTEE ON THE ELIMINATION OF RACIAL DISCRIMINATION (CERD)
52nd session (Geneva 2-20 March 1998)The Committee members, to whom a wholly insufficient report had been submitted, were unable to establish a constructive dialogue with the Israeli delegation, which showed some irritability during the debates. The insufficiencies noted in the implementation of the Convention have contributed to a dangerous raising of tensions in the region and to deadlock in the peace process. The Committee reaffirmed that the Jewish colonies in the Occupied Territories, as well as actions which lead to changes in population distribution, were illegal under modern international law and constitute breaches in international humanitarian law. A swift end mmust be brought to the demolition of Arab property in East Jerusalem, to the torture of Palestinian detainees and to obstacles to the rights of Palestinians to return to their homes or to taking possession of their homes in Israel.
[The Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) monitors the implementation of the International Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Racial Discrimination.]
(4) COMMITTEE AGAINST TORTURE (CAT)
20th session (Geneva 4-22 May 1998)In 1997, the Committee studied a special report, which had been requested a year earlier, following the Israeli High Court of Justice decision to allow the security service, Shin Beth, to use "physiscal pressure" during interrogations. The situation has hardly changed since and the Committee noted that the methods that it considered as torture a year before continue to be used in a systematic way*. The Committee urgently requested that torture be stopped in the country, which is alone in having legalised it. It reminded the Israeli government that the security situation in the country was no justification for such acts.
* According to B'Tselem, some 850 persons are victims of torture each year.
[The Committee Against Torture (CAT) monitors the implementation of the Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel Inhuman or Degrading Treatment of Punishment.]
(5) COMMISSION ON THE STATUS OF WOMEN
42nd session (New York 2-13 March 1998)Eight resolutions were adopted during this session. The resolution concerning Palestinian women was the only one to be put to a vote (34 in favour, US against, 5 abstentions: Lebanon, Lesotho, Norway, Rwanda, Ugunda). This recommendation reiterates that the Israeli occupation is a major obstacle to the progress of the rights of Palestinian women, and urges Israel to facilitate the return of displaced Palestinian women and children to their homes.
[The Commission on the Status of Women is a subsidiary body of the Economic and Social Council makes recommendations to the Council concerning the advancement of the rights of women in the political, economic, civil, social and education areas, and concerning the urgent problems they face which necessitate immediate action.]
(6) ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COUNCIL (ECOSOC)
Substantial session (New York 6-31 July 1998)The ECOSOC adopted the resolutions of the Commission on the Status of Women regarding among others the resolution on Palestinian women.
[The Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) is the main body for the co-ordination of the economic and social activities within the United Nations system.]