Defence for Children International / Palestine Section (DCI/PS) received the UN Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict and hosted a meeting with Palestinian child rights professionals in Bethlehem on Monday, 16 April, in order to address grave violations against children in the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT).

UN Special Representative Radhika Coomaraswamy is currently carrying out a visit to the OPT and Israel , having visited Lebanon from 10 to 13 April. Her visit is in response to invitations from the Governments of those countries, following the release of the 2006 Secretary-General report on children and armed conflict (A/61/529-S/2006/826). [Read the section on the OPT ]. During her visit, Ms Coomaraswamy met with representatives from the Palestinian Authority and the Israeli Government; members of civil society and children, in order to assess first hand the situation of children and subsequently promote improved cooperation with all stakeholders to ensure greater protection for children affected by the conflict in this region.

On Monday 16 April, DCI/PS, in collaboration with UNICEF, organised a tour of villages in the Hebron and Bethlehem areas of the West Bank , and facilitated meetings with children and child rights professionals.

The tour began at the village of at-Tuwani, in the south of the West Bank , where Ms Coomaraswamy met six children from the nearby Tuba village who attend the at-Tuwani Basic School. At-Tuwani is in close proximity to the Israeli settlement of Ma'on. Children from Tuba are forbidden to use any form of transportation to go to school. They walk for four kilometers, back and forth, every day and frequently suffer violent attacks from the Ma'on settlers. The children told Ms Coomaraswamy that they were subjected to random beatings, and that the settlers frequently stole their school bags or tore their school books. They asked the Special Representative to provide them with greater protection in order to go to school, and be allowed to be driven to school.

Ms Coomaraswamy then went to Um al Kher where she met Palestinian families living in tents near the Israeli settlement of Karme'l, after their houses had been demolished by the Israeli army. People in Um al Kher also suffer daily aggression from settlers and Israeli soldiers, designed to force them to evacuate the area. They have no running water or electricity, and are denied building permissions, which are granted to settlers living nearby. The 20 children of Um al Kher told the Special Representative that they wanted houses and asked her to put an end to the army and settler violence.

Ms Coomaraswamy was then taken to al Nu'man village, near Bethlehem , which is bordered on three sides by the Wall, and cut off from the rest of the West Bank and the Jerusalem area. Residents of al Nu'man are considerably restricted in their movements; they are threatened by settlement expansion; and substantial areas of their land have been confiscated, demonstrating Israel 's efforts to forcibly remove al-Nu'man's inhabitants from their land. The Special Representative listened to a group of children expressing their daily experience of violence and humiliation as they have to cross a checkpoint and a gate to access the West Bank and Jerusalem area. At these crossing points, soldiers hold the village residents for hours; prevent their friends and family from visiting; beat them and terrorise them with gunshots. Ms Coomaraswamy promised children to raise these issues with Israeli officials and include them in her next report.

DCI/PS Bethlehem office then hosted a lunch for concerned NGOs, government representatives and education professionals, where Ms Coomaraswamy sought suggestions on issues to raise in her advocacy work at the UN and with Palestinian and Israeli governments. Save the Children Sweden highlighted the need to put pressure on political actors to achieve change, which economic assistance alone cannot bring. Save the Children UK raised the issue of access to education and asked the Special Representative to elicit a first commitment from the Israeli army to no longer use school premises as interrogation and detention centres.

Christian Peacemaker Team and the Principal of the Qurtobah school in Hebron talked about the violence perpetrated with impunity by settlers in the city. Teachers are being detained and children and adults are attacked by young settlers in front of soldiers, who never intervene on behalf of the Palestinian victims. Ms Coomaraswamy acknowledged that the issue of impunity was an important one, which had already been raised by Louise Arbour during her visit in November 2006. She pledged to reiterate this issue.

DCI/PS and al Haq brought to her attention the plight of Palestinian children arrested and imprisoned by Israel in violation of all basic international juvenile justice standards. Children should not be tried in military courts and should receive fair trials. Israel should stop resorting to administrative detention for children, and either charge them or release them.

Badil Resource Centre for Palestinian Residency and Refugee Rights pointed out that forced displacement was a slow but calculated process which lacked visibility at the international level. They asked the Special Representative to raise awareness about the issue, and consider it as an illegal policy rather than advocate on behalf of individual cases.

A discussion ensued on the issue of internal political violence and its impact on children; and on the responsibility of the Palestinian Authority to enforce the current ceasefire. Ms Coomaraswamy said that she had already raised this issue with President Mahmoud Abbas in a meeting with him during the previous week.

After lunch, Ms Coomaraswamy met eight children from the Hebron and Bethlehem areas to listen to their experiences of the conflict. One child talked about his life in a refugee camp; another one told the Special Representative about being attacked by violent settlers in Hebron on her way to school. A third child talked about how she missed her father who is currently serving a 15 year prison sentence. She explained how she felt when she heard that was kept in solitary confinement for three months, and how he has suffered during interrogations.

Radhika Coomaraswamy Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict United Nations S-3161 New York , NY 10017 16th April 2007 Dear UN Special Representative Coomaraswamy, On behalf of Defence for Children International – Palestine Section (DCI/PS), I would like to express my appreciation for your prioritisation of a mission to the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT) in light of Israel's refusal last year to allow the dispatch of two UN missions mandated with investigating allegations of human rights abuses by Israel in the OPT (Human Rights Council resolutions A/HRC/RES/S-1/1 of 6th July 2006 and A/HRC/RES/S-3/1-2 of 20th November 2006). As the leading organisation systematically monitoring violations of Palestinian children's rights, it is our duty to make sure that during your visit you witness the range of breaches of international protection standards for children by the Israeli army and the Palestinian Authority, in the context of the Israel-Palestine conflict. We hope that this visit will provide you with sufficient information to determine which actions can be carried out by your office in order to promote better implementation of the rights of Palestinian children. Throughout the Second Intifada which started in September 2000, the rights of Palestinian children have been routinely and flagrantly violated by Israel, including their right to life, their right to liberty, education and healthcare, their right to a family life, their right to dignity and freedom from violence and abuse. However, despite repeated injunctions from the UN Human Rights Council, the international community and civil society, the Israeli government has never sought to alter its military strategy in order to lessen the impact of the conflict on Palestinian children. As you will see from the attached briefing papers, DCI/PS monitoring of Palestinian children's rights violations since the beginning of the Intifada shows no improvement in Israel 's respect for international humanitarian law standards regarding the protection of children: Child fatalities : In 2006, 124 Palestinian children were killed by Israeli military forces or settlers, 31% of whom were 12 years old or younger. In total, 861 children were killed since the beginning of the Intifada - that includes 9 children in the first three months of this year; Child detainees : In 2006, some 700 Palestinian children were arrested by Israeli soldiers (about 5200 since the beginning of the Intifada in September 2000). Among those 700, around 25 were held on administrative detention orders (imprisonment without charge or trial). Israel continues to use imprisonment as a measure of first resort, to prosecute all children in Israeli Military Courts, to deny them prompt access to a lawyer and contact with their families, to deny bail to the majority of children before the military court, and to elicit confessions under interrogation and torture, and to attempt to recruit child detainees as collaborators with Israel's secret security agency; Access to education : Since the start of the second Intifada, Israeli military campaigns and Israeli settler activities have consistently disrupted and undermined education in the OPT. Curfews, checkpoint closures, military incursions, the construction of the Wall, physical attacks and threats against students and teachers have not only reduced access to education but also have resulted in the deaths, injury or psychological trauma of many Palestinian children and teachers. As you are aware, child protection issues in the Israel-Palestine conflict extend beyond the six grave violations listed in the fifth report of the Secretary-General on children and armed conflict and include violations such as lack of access to education, displacement and lack of adequate housing (due to house demolitions), and coerced participation in military activities (such as the use of children as human shields or as collaborators). Unfortunately, violations related to these issues are often overlooked in favour of the pressing question of the recruitment of child soldiers, and as a result, the plight of Palestinian children is sometimes overshadowed by the conflicts in Central African and Asian countries. We hope that you will take every opportunity during this country visit and afterwards to gather as much information as possible on violations of Palestinian children's rights by the Israeli army and the Palestinian Authority, and advocate at UN and government levels for a stricter application of international protection standards for children in the OPT. During your visit, we ask you to seek further information from the Israeli government, the principal duty bearer, on the patterns of violation recorded by DCI/PS and presented to you in the documents attached to this letter. Indeed, respect for the rights of Palestinian children can only be achieved through joint efforts from all stakeholders and duty bearers. Unfortunately, the Israeli government has so far proved extremely uncooperative towards UN and civil society attempts at investigating Palestinian children's rights violations and holding military commanders accountable for serious breaches of International Humanitarian Law. Successive governments have also consistently refused to engage in a dialogue on Israel's responsibility to uphold human and child rights in the OPT, but without the Israeli government's cooperation, will and resources, there is not much that the UN and civil society can do to put an end to Palestinian children's suffering. Therefore, we ask you, as the highest United Nations public advocate for the rights of children affected by armed conflict, and in keeping with the objectives of your new strategic plan, to endeavour to: Seek information from the Israeli government on the circumstances of the alleged violations mentioned in the DCI briefing papers (this information is not made available to Palestinian NGOs); Remind the Israeli government of its obligations under international child rights law and International Humanitarian Law, and elicit immediate commitments from the government; Raise awareness about Palestinian children's rights within the Task Force on Children and Armed Conflict; Advocate at the UN Human Rights Council and the UN General Assembly for the need to investigate alleged violations of International Humanitarian Law by Israel , to hold perpetrators accountable and to protect Palestinian children from the impacts of the current conflict; Advocate at the European Union, especially at the European Council, for Israel to be included in the list of priority countries of the EU Guidelines on Children and Armed Conflict, in order to ensure regular monitoring and reporting of breaches of international child protection standards in the OPT and encourage EU institutions to make use of their political tools to apply more pressure on the Israeli government; Put pressure on Palestinian Authority officials that you will meet during your visit to devote more resources to promoting the rule of law and respect for human/child rights within the Palestinian territories in order to reduce violence against children caused by internal clashes; Issue a public statement on the responsibility of the Israeli government to uphold Palestinian children's rights in their military campaigns; Remind donor governments and agencies of their responsibility to hold Israel accountable for the destruction of Palestinian infrastructure and institutions (such as schools and hospitals) that they have contributed to (re)build; Exert pressure on the Israeli government to agree to the visit of two urgent fact-finding missions to the occupied Palestinian territory, pursuant to Human Rights Council Resolution A/HRC/4/L.2, adopted on 27 March 2007 during last month's Fourth Council session. Please refer to the attached briefing papers for specific data, figures and recommendations concerning violations of Palestinian children's rights by the Israeli military monitored by DCI/PS. We remain at your disposal for any further information requests from your office. Yours sincerely, George Abu Al-Zulof Director Defence for Children International – Palestine Section