Childhood is not a Privilege but a Right - Public Committee Against Torture in Israel (PCATI)

http://www.stoptorture.org.il/en/node/1951

31.12.2013

The Public Committee Against Torture in Israel (PCATI) Notes with increasing alarm and condemnation Israel's failure to protect Palestinian children from direct and indirect torture and ill treatment

Torture Destroys Childhood, Families, Society

With the Israeli Knesset's Public Petitions Committee (being held today)meeting on "Conditions of arrest and imprisonment of Palestinian youth in East Jerusalem and Judea and Samaria (sic)" PCATI reminds Knesset Members and their constituentsthat torture and ill treatment are absolutely prohibited and that Israel's legislature must anchor this prohibition in its domestic law.

The Istanbul Protocol Manual on the Effective Investigation and Documentation of Torture Raises the following issues regarding torture and children which must be understood:

"Perpetrators [of torture] often attempt to justify their acts of torture and ill-treatment by the need to gather information…One of the central aims of torture is to reduce an individual to a position of extreme helplessness and distress … Thus, torture is a means of attacking an individual’s fundamental modes of psychological and social functioning. The torturer attempts to destroy a victim’s sense of being grounded in a family and society as a human being with dreams, hopes and aspirations for the future. In addition, torture can profoundly damage intimate relationships between spouses, parents, children, other family members and relationships between the victims and their communities (Para. 235)… Torture can impact a child directly or indirectly. The impact can be due to the child’s having been tortured or detained, the torture of parents or close family members or witnessing torture and violence. When individuals in a child’s environment are tortured, the torture will inevitably have an impact on the child, albeit indirect, because torture affects the entire family and community of torture victims… Adolescence is a turbulent developmental period. The effects of torture can vary widely. Torture experiences may cause profound personality changes in adolescents resulting in antisocial behaviour. Alternatively, the effects of torture on adolescents may be similar to those seen in younger children (Para. 310 &312)."