Human rights in OPT/Arrests of children – PLO letter

QUESTION OF THE VIOLATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS IN THE OCCUPIED ARAB TERRITORIES, INCLUDING PALESTINE

Letter dated 27 November 1990 from the Permanent Observer for
Palestine to the United Nations Office at Geneva
addressed to the Under-Secretary-General for Human Rights

1. The Israeli occupation authorities have arrested two children, Zafer Farid Attawil, aged 14, and Ala' Salah Warrad, also aged 14, from Al-Nuri sector of Jerusalem, and, on 18 November 1990, have extended their detention.

2. During their arrest, the two children were severely beaten by the Israeli occupation authorities and one of them, Ala' Salah Warrad, had to be transferred to an Israeli hospital due to the beatings.

3. This crime against the Palestinian children in the occupied territories stresses the contents of international reports on arrest, torture and killing of children by the Israeli occupation authorities, and particularly the reports of the Secretary-General to the Security Council and the reports of the Special Committee to Investigate Israeli Practices Affecting the Human Rights of the Palestinian People and other Arabs of the Occupied Territories.

4. Moreover, these facts renew the assertion that, unless the Israeli occupation authorities withdraw from the Palestinian Occupied Territories, unless, Pending this withdrawal, the international community secures international protection of the Palestinian people under occupation, such crimes will continue against our people, crimes which continuously violate principles of international law, of international humanitarian law as well the provisions of the Fourth Geneva Convention of 1949.

5. We, hereby, kindly request you to take the necessary measures to distribute this memorandum as an official document of the next session of the Commission on Human Rights.

Signed) Nabil RAMLAWI
Permanent Observer for the Palestine
to the United Nations Office at Geneva

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