Palestinian Female Prisoners on Hunger Strike

Tuesday, August 06 2002


RAMALLAH: The Palestinian rights group, LAW said in a press release issued Tuesday that it’s deeply concerned about the well-being of Palestinian female prisoners, currently on a hunger strike.

After hours of delay, LAW's lawyer Fahmi Shkirat was allowed to meet with only one Palestinian female prisoner, Kifah Ka'abni. She described how waste water flooded into prison cells on Monday, July 29, 2002.

“Prison guards assaulted the female prisoners with teargas grenades and two of the female prisoners fainted,” LAW said.

“This assault followed a request by the Palestinian female prisoners at the prison authorities of Ramle prison to do something about this. Prison guards broke into their cells and transferred Amna Mona to al- Jalami prison, and Suad Ghazal (18), who was arrested at the age of 15, to Abu Kbir detention center, and Ahlam al-Tamimi to the Russian Compound ('Moscowbiya') in Jerusalem.”

“The prison authorities placed a number of Palestinian female prisoners in solitary confinement as a punitive measure for protesting the transfer of the three female prisoners. Subsequently, the Palestinian female prisoners started a hunger strike. They have been on hunger strike for four days, protesting the poor conditions and Israeli maltreatment.“

LAW is deeply concerned about the inhuman and degrading treatment of Palestinian female prisoners in Ramle prison. In the same way that Israel is accountable under international law for preventing torture and ill- treatment, it is also required to uphold prisoners' privacy rights as codified in article 17 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

LAW stated: “The Fourth Geneva Convention clearly prohibits the transfer of Palestinian detainees from the Occupied Palestinian Territories to Israel. Article 76 states that 'Protected persons accused of offences shall be detained in the occupied country, and if convicted they shall serve their sentences therein'.”

“Israel's treatment of Palestinian detainees does not meet the United Nations Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners, the Body of Principles for the Protection of All Persons Under Any Form of Detention or Imprisonment, and the Basic Principles for the Treatment of Prisoners.”

These instruments are binding on Israel to the extent that the norms set out in them explicate the broader standards contained in human rights treaties. LAW further calls on the Israeli government to ensure that the rights of detainees are protected in accordance with international human rights and humanitarian law.

Moreover, LAW called on the international community, in particular the member states of the European Union to ensure Israel's respect for the Fourth Geneva Convention and to live up to their legal obligations.

“LAW is gravely concerned about the fate of thousands of Palestinian political prisoners who are still in custody, without charge or trial, often under administrative detention orders which may be renewed indefinitely. There is strong evidence that the majority of those detained have been arbitrarily detained, and that thousands of Palestinians have been rounded up, humiliated, ill-treated and held in poor conditions as a collective punishment.”


LAW - The Palestinian Society for the Protection of Human Rights and the Environment is a non-governmental organization dedicated to preserving human rights through legal advocacy.


http://palestinechronicle.com/article.php?story=20020806135800385