Promoting Human Rights for Palestinian Children Living Under Israeli Military Occupation Act

I 116TH CONGRESS 1ST SESSION H. R. 2407 To promote human rights for Palestinian children living under Israeli military occupation and require that United States funds do not support military detention, interrogation, abuse, or ill-treatment of Palestinian children, and for other purposes. IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES APRIL 30, 2019 Ms. MCCOLLUM introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Foreign Affairs A BILL To promote human rights for Palestinian children living under Israeli military occupation and require that United States funds do not support military detention, interroga- tion, abuse, or ill-treatment of Palestinian children, and for other purposes. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa- 1 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Promoting Human 4 Rights for Palestinian Children Living Under Israeli Mili- 5 tary Occupation Act’’. 6 VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:45 May 02, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H2407.IH H2407 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 2 •HR 2407 IH SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 1 Congress finds the following: 2 (1) Children are entitled to special protections 3 and due process rights under international human 4 rights law and international humanitarian law, re- 5 gardless of guilt or innocence or the gravity of an al- 6 leged offense. 7 (2) The Government of Israel and its military 8 detains around 500 to 700 Palestinian children be- 9 tween the ages of 12 and 17 each year and pros- 10 ecutes them before a military court system that 11 lacks basic and fundamental guarantees of due proc- 12 ess in violation of international standards. 13 (3) Israel has ratified the Convention on the 14 Rights of the Child, which states— 15 (A) in article 37(a), that ‘‘no child shall be 16 subject to torture or other cruel, inhuman or 17 degrading treatment or punishment’’; 18 (B) in article 37(b), that the arrest, deten- 19 tion or imprisonment of a child ‘‘shall be used 20 only as a measure of last resort and for the 21 shortest appropriate period of time’’; 22 (C) in article 37(c), that ‘‘every child de- 23 prived of liberty shall be treated with humanity 24 and respect for the inherent dignity of the 25 human person, and in a manner which takes 26 VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:45 May 02, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H2407.IH H2407 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 3 •HR 2407 IH into account the needs of persons of his or her 1 age’’; and 2 (D) in article 37(d), that ‘‘[e]very child de- 3 prived of his or her liberty shall have the right 4 to prompt access to legal and other appropriate 5 assistance, as well as the right to challenge the 6 legality of the deprivation of his or her liberty 7 before a court or other competent, independent 8 and impartial authority, and to a prompt deci- 9 sion on any such action’’. 10 (4) In the Israeli-occupied West Bank, there 11 are two separate legal systems, with Israeli military 12 law imposed on Palestinians and Israeli civilian law 13 applied to Israeli settlers. 14 (5) Approximately 2,900,000 Palestinians live 15 in the West Bank, of which around 45 percent are 16 children under the age of 18, who have lived their 17 entire lives under Israeli military occupation. 18 (6) Since 2000, more than 10,000 Palestinian 19 children have been subject to the Israeli military 20 court system. 21 (7) Israeli security forces detain children under 22 the age of 12 for interrogation for extended periods 23 of time even though prosecution of children under 24 12 is prohibited by Israeli military law. 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:45 May 02, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H2407.IH H2407 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 4 •HR 2407 IH (8) Human Rights Watch, in its World Report 1 2018, reported that Israeli Security Forces detained 2 Palestinian children ‘‘often using unnecessary force, 3 questioned them without a family member present, 4 and made them sign confessions in Hebrew, which 5 most did not understand’’. 6 (9) Human Rights Watch documented, in a 7 July 2015 report titled ‘‘Israel: Security Forces 8 Abuse Palestinian Children’’, that such detentions 9 also included the use of chokeholds, beatings, and 10 coercive interrogation on children between the ages 11 of 11 and 15 years. 12 (10) The Israeli human rights organization 13 B’Tselem issued a report in 2018 describing the 14 treatment of Palestinian children under Israeli mili- 15 tary occupation: ‘‘Every year, hundreds of Pales- 16 tinian minors undergo the same scenario. Israeli se- 17 curity forces pick them up on the street or at home 18 in the middle of the night, then handcuff and blind- 19 fold them and transport them to interrogation, often 20 subjecting them to violence en route. Exhausted and 21 scared—some having spent a long time in transit, 22 some having been roused from sleep, some having 23 had nothing to eat or drink for hours—the minors 24 are then interrogated. They are completely alone in 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:45 May 02, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H2407.IH H2407 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 5 •HR 2407 IH there, cut off from the world, without any adult they 1 know and trust by their side, and without having 2 been given a chance to consult with a lawyer before 3 the interrogation. The interrogation itself often in- 4 volves threats, yelling, verbal abuse and sometimes 5 physical violence. Its sole purpose is to get the mi- 6 nors to confess or provide information about oth- 7 ers.’’. 8 (11) The United Nations Children’s Fund 9 (UNICEF) concluded, in a February 2013 report ti- 10 tled ‘‘Children in Israeli Military Detention’’, that 11 the ‘‘ill-treatment of children who come in contact 12 with the military detention system appears to be 13 widespread, systematic and institutionalized 14 throughout the process, from the moment of arrest 15 until the child’s prosecution and eventual conviction 16 and sentencing’’. 17 (12) The 2013 UNICEF report further deter- 18 mines that the Israeli system of military detention of 19 Palestinian children profoundly deviates from inter- 20 national norms, stating that ‘‘in no other country 21 are children systematically tried by juvenile military 22 courts that, by definition, fall short of providing the 23 necessary guarantees to ensure respect for their 24 rights’’. 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:45 May 02, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H2407.IH H2407 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 6 •HR 2407 IH (13) UNICEF also released reports in October 1 2013 and February 2015 noting that Israeli authori- 2 ties have, since March 2013, issued new military or- 3 ders and taken steps to reinforce existing military 4 and police standard operating procedures relating to 5 the detention of Palestinian children. However, the 6 reports still found continued and persistent evidence 7 of ill-treatment of Palestinian children detained by 8 Israeli forces. 9 (14) In 2013, the annual Country Report on 10 Human Rights Practices for Israel and the Occupied 11 Territories (‘‘Annual Report’’) published by the De- 12 partment of State noted that Israeli security services 13 continued to abuse, and in some cases torture mi- 14 nors, frequently arrested on suspicion of stone- 15 throwing, in order to coerce confessions. The torture 16 tactics used included threats, intimidation, long-term 17 handcuffing, beatings, and solitary confinement. 18 (15) The State Department’s 2013 Annual Re- 19 port also stated that ‘‘signed confessions by Pales- 20 tinian minors, written in Hebrew, a language most 21 could not read, continued to be used as evidence 22 against them in Israeli military courts’’. 23 (16) The State Department’s 2016 Annual Re- 24 port noted a ‘‘significant increase in detentions of 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:45 May 02, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00006 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H2407.IH H2407 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 7 •HR 2407 IH minors’’ in 2016, and that ‘‘Israeli authorities con- 1 tinued to use confessions signed by Palestinian mi- 2 nors, written in Hebrew’’. It also highlighted the re- 3 newed use of ‘‘administrative detention’’ against Pal- 4 estinians, including children, a practice in which a 5 detainee may be held indefinitely, without charge or 6 trial, by the order of a military commander or other 7 government official. 8 (17) The nongovernmental organization De- 9 fense for Children International Palestine collected 10 affidavits from 739 West Bank children who were 11 detained between 2013 and 2018, and concluded 12 that— 13 (A) 73 percent of the children endured 14 physical violence following arrest; 15 (B) under Israeli military law, children do 16 not have the right to a lawyer during interroga- 17 tion; 18 (C) 96 percent of the children did not have 19 a parent present during their interrogation; 20 (D) 74 percent of the children were not 21 properly informed of their rights by Israeli po- 22 lice; 23 VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:45 May 02, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00007 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H2407.IH H2407 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 8 •HR 2407 IH (E) interrogators used stress positions, 1 threats of violence, and isolation to coerce con- 2 fessions from detained children; 3 (F) 29 children were detained and placed 4 in administrative detention, or detention with- 5 out charge or trial, since Israel renewed the 6 practice against minors in October 2015, and 7 (G) 122 children were held in pre-trial, 8 pre-charge isolation for interrogation purposes 9 for an average period of 13 days. 10 (18) Amendments to Israeli military law con- 11 cerning the detention of Palestinian children have 12 had little to no impact on the treatment of children 13 during the first 24 to 48 hours after an arrest, when 14 the majority of their ill-treatment occurs. 15 (19) In 2013, the United Nations Committee 16 on the Rights of the Child reviewed Israel’s compli- 17 ance with the Convention on the Rights of the Child 18 and declared that Palestinian children arrested by 19 Israeli forces ‘‘continue to be systematically subject 20 to degrading treatment, and often to acts of torture’’ 21 and that Israel had ‘‘fully disregarded’’ the previous 22 recommendations of the Committee to comply with 23 international law. 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:45 May 02, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00008 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H2407.IH H2407 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 9 •HR 2407 IH (20) The United Nations Committee Against 1 Torture, in 2016, reviewed Israel’s compliance with 2 the Convention Against Torture and reported: ‘‘alle- 3 gations of many instances in which Palestinian mi- 4 nors were exposed to torture or ill-treatment, includ- 5 ing to obtain confessions; were given confessions to 6 sign in Hebrew, a language they do not understand; 7 and were interrogated in the absence of a lawyer or 8 a family member. The Committee is also concerned 9 that many of these children, like many other Pal- 10 estinians, are deprived of liberty in facilities located 11 in Israel, thus hindering access to visits of relatives 12 who live in the Occupied Palestinian Territory.’’. 13 (21) Existing Federal statutory provisions 14 known as the ‘‘Leahy law’’ codified at section 620M 15 of the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961, 22 U.S.C. 16 2378d and section 362 of Title 10 of the United 17 States Code, prohibit the United States Government 18 from using funds for assistance to units of foreign 19 security forces where there is credible information 20 implicating that unit in the commission of gross vio- 21 lations of human rights, including torture. 22 (22) The United States provides in excess of 23 $3.8 billion in annual foreign military assistance to 24 the Government of Israel which enables the military 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:45 May 02, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00009 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H2407.IH H2407 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 10 •HR 2407 IH detention and abuse of Palestinian children by 1 Israel’s military system of juvenile detention. 2 SEC. 3. PURPOSE. 3 The purpose of this Act is to promote and protect 4 the human rights of Palestinian children living under 5 Israeli military occupation. 6 SEC. 4. SENSE OF CONGRESS. 7 It is the sense of Congress that— 8 (1) the detention, prosecution, and ill-treatment 9 of Palestinian children living under military occupa- 10 tion in a military court system that lacks basic and 11 fundamental guarantees of due process by the Gov- 12 ernment of Israel— 13 (A) violates international law and inter- 14 nationally recognized standards of human 15 rights; 16 (B) is contrary to the values of the Amer- 17 ican people and the efforts of the United States 18 to support equality, human rights, and dignity 19 for both Palestinians and Israelis; and 20 (C) undermines efforts by the United 21 States and the international community to 22 achieve a just and lasting peace between Israel 23 and the Palestinian people; and 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:45 May 02, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00010 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H2407.IH H2407 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 11 •HR 2407 IH (2) Israeli and Palestinian civil society organi- 1 zations working to advance human rights, justice, 2 and equal treatment for Palestinians living under 3 Israeli military occupation, as well as Jewish and 4 non-Jewish citizens of Israel, are essential to pro- 5 moting human dignity, democratic values, and inter- 6 national humanitarian law, and therefore deserve 7 recognition and support from the United States and 8 the American people. 9 SEC. 5. STATEMENT OF POLICY. 10 It is the policy of the United States to promote 11 human rights for Palestinian children living under Israeli 12 military occupation and to declare Israel’s system of mili- 13 tary detention of Palestinian children as a practice that 14 results in widespread and systematic human rights abuses 15 amounting to gross violations of human rights inconsistent 16 with international humanitarian law and the laws and val- 17 ues of the United States. 18 SEC. 6. LIMITATION ON ASSISTANCE TO SECURITY FORCES. 19 (a) IN GENERAL.—Section 620M of the Foreign As- 20 sistance Act of 1961 (22 U.S.C. 2378d; commonly known 21 as the ‘‘Leahy Law’’) is amended by adding at the end 22 the following new subsection: 23 ‘‘(e) SPECIFIC LIMITATIONS CONCERNING MILITARY 24 COURTS.—Notwithstanding any other provision of law, no 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:45 May 02, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00011 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H2407.IH H2407 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 12 •HR 2407 IH funds authorized to be appropriated for assistance to a [Text truncated for display. Full text available on Congress.gov.]