Jerusalem, February 11: Relatives of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails have urged the United Nations human rights chief to pressure Israel to abide by the human rights principles.
In a memorandum submitted to visiting UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay on Thursday in Gaza City, the families asked her to “to take necessary measures and actions to activate the protection of human rights and set upon a monitoring system to ensure that Israeli government abides by these human rights principles,” AFP reported.
The memorandum also urged the UN General Assembly “to work on issuing a decision that condemns Israel and forces it to comply with the international conventions, particularly the Geneva conventions.”
Israel should be pressured so that it stops rights violations against Palestinians and lifts the Israeli blockade on the impoverished Palestinians, Khalil Abu Shamala, head of a Gaza-based rights group said.
A recent study by Public Committee Against Torture and Palestinian Prisoners’ Society reported that most of the Palestinian prisoners are exposed to torture while they are denied access to lawyers.
The report said that as many as 90 percent of Palestinian prisoners interrogated by Israel’s notorious intelligence agency, Shin Bet, are prevented from consulting with a lawyer.
The Palestinian ministry of prisoners and detainees in Gaza has said that there are currently 450 children among about 8,000 Palestinian prisoners and detainees held in Israeli jails. There are also 36 women, 125 inmates who have served more than 25 years in prison and 1,500 who need urgent medical attention.
This was the UN rights chief’s first visit to the occupied Palestinian territories and Gaza, which began on Sunday and is to end on Friday.
——–Agencies