Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment: Initial report submitted by the State of Palestine under article 19 of the Convention, due in 2015 (CAT/C/PSE/1) [EN/AR]

Introduction

1. This report, which is the official initial report for the State of Palestine, was prepared in accordance with obligations arising under article 19 of the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Degrading or Inhuman Treatment or Punishment. The State of Palestine acceded to the Convention, without any reservations, on 1 April 2014. It has also acceded to numerous other conventions and treaties on human rights and international humanitarian law that also prohibit all forms of torture.

2. During the preparation of this and other treaty body reports due for submission, the Government of the State of Palestine provided a sound constitutional, legislative and procedural environment in line with the Committee’s general comment No. 2 of 2002 on the establishment of national institutions to facilitate the implementation of the Conventions. On 7 May 2014, the President of the State of Palestine, Mahmoud Abbas, issued a decree on the formation of a standing national committee at the ministerial level to follow up on the accession by the State of Palestine to those international conventions and treaties. The committee is chaired by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Migrants and its members are drawn from other ministries and competent government institutions. The Independent Commission for Human Rights acts as an observer to monitor the fulfilment of obligations arising from accession to the treaties in question. Moreover, a committee was set up in 2017 to harmonize existing legislation with international treaties and conventions. It is chaired by the Ministry of Justice and composed of members from the competent government institutions and civil society organizations. Its mandate is to review legislation and the compatibility of its provisions with those of international conventions to which the State of Palestine has acceded.

3. After acceding to the human rights conventions, the State of Palestine adopted a national policy agenda for the period 2017–2022 and announced its commitment to the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Those commitments have been incorporated into the national policy agenda out of a sense of duty to the Palestinian people and in order to guarantee their fundamental freedoms and human rights, justice and equality, as well as providing opportunities for and protecting marginalized groups.

4. On 28 December 2017, the State of Palestine signed the Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, demonstrating the seriousness of its political will to prevent torture and ensure accountability in that regard. It is one of the most important steps taken by the State of Palestine since its accession to the United Nations human rights treaties in 2014. Thereafter, the Palestinian Government announced its commitment to establishing an independent national preventive mechanism for the prevention of torture, as stipulated by the Optional Protocol. The core mandate of the mechanism will be to visit all places of detention in order to prevent torture and ensure that living and health conditions in them are proper, and to coordinate with the Subcommittee on Prevention of Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment. The State of Palestine is currently working with national and international partners, including Palestinian civil society organizations, to set up the mechanism.

5. This report was prepared by a committee of government institutions formed at the behest of the standing national committee and chaired by the Ministry of Interior. Its members were drawn from the Ministry of Justice, the Office of the Public Prosecutor, the Commission on Detainees Affairs, the Ministry of Social Development, the Ministry of Health, the Military Justice Commission and the Supreme Judicial Council.

6. In preparing the report, the committee benefited from information and reports provided by civil society organizations working in related areas. As part of its ongoing cooperation with those organizations, the committee also held two national consultation sessions to present and discuss the report in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. The latter had to be held because participating organizations encountered difficulties in travelling from the Gaza Strip owing to discriminatory measures taken by the occupying Israeli authorities. The committee used the comments of those organizations to enrich and amend the report.

7. The report contains a general overview and a detailed picture of the existing national laws and regulations in the State of Palestine relating to the implementation of the provisions of the Convention. It also contains data, information and statistics regarding efforts at the national level to stop torture and inhuman and degrading treatment.

8. The legal situation and reality on the ground in the Gaza Strip are also examined in the report. Since they imposed a stringent and unlawful blockade in 2007, the occupying Israeli authorities have increasingly detached Gaza, which is an integral part of the territory of the State of Palestine, from its natural anchorage. To this day, they have continued to subject it to measures that flout international law, repeated aggression and unrelenting collective punishment. They have split the Palestinian people demographically, curtailing freedom of movement and contact between the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip, in direct, systematic and broad violation of the human rights of all Palestinians. At the same time, Israel, the occupying Power, has targeted the institutions of the State of Palestine and its officials, thereby limiting its capacity to meet its obligations and responsibilities to the people with a sufficiently high degree of professionalism and effectiveness. Violations by occupying forces against the security authorities are set forth in an accompanying table.

9. In mid-2007, the Hamas movement led a coup d’état in the Gaza Strip by, the most serious consequence of which has been to split the Palestinian political system. The Gaza Strip is legally subject to the authority of the State of Palestine and the actions taken by Hamas there since that time are inadmissible and illegal in the eyes of the Government of the State of Palestine. This has been underlined repeatedly in statements by the President of the State of Palestine, numerous government officials, faction heads and civil society leaders.

10. Violations of the Convention by Israel, the occupying Power, are also addressed in the report. Since occupying Palestinian territory in 1967, it has systematically violated the human rights of Palestinians on a large scale. The living conditions of Palestinian detainees held in the prisons of the Israeli occupiers are addressed, with supplementary data and statistics on the racist policy pursued by the occupying Israeli authorities in their torture and inhuman treatment of those detainees. The information contained in the report regarding the systematic violations by Israel, the occupying Power, must be seen in the light of its legal and moral responsibility and international obligations vis-à-vis the Palestinian people, who have been subjected to its colonial authority and are afflicted by its repressive and arbitrary practices, and the need for legal accountability. One of its greatest obligations, as a party to the Convention, is to ensure that people it has subjugated are not tortured. The violations by the occupying Israeli authorities include even the refusal to release the bodies of Palestinian martyrs, which amounts to collective punishment and a violation of the Convention. Moreover, Israel, the occupying Power, continually places obstacles in the way of the State of Palestine, thus preventing it from developing its justice and security sector.

11. The State of Palestine wishes to stress that the submission of this report does not absolve Israel, the occupying Power, of its legal responsibility under international law, in particular international humanitarian law and human rights law. That includes its obligation to uphold the provisions of the Convention and submit a report on its compliance with those provisions in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem. That obligation is alluded to in the advisory opinion of the International Court of Justice, issued in 2004, on the legal consequences of the construction of a wall in the Occupied Palestinian Territory.