Special Rapporteur on countering terrorism and detention centers in Northeast Syria

HRC 53 - SR OPT - 10 JULY 2023 continuity

16:05

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21-07-2023

Edited News

Special Rapporteur on countering terrorism and detention centers in Northeast Syria

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Exterior wide shot: UN flag alley UN Geneva
Wide shot: speakers and mediator behind panel at the press conference
SOUNDBITE (English) – Fionnuala Ní Aoláin, UN Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms while countering terrorism: “What I was able to witness firsthand, including mass arbitrary detention of children, incommunicado detention, disappearances, structural and systematic discrimination for detained persons on the basis of their nationality, torture, cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment, as well as the deprivation of the fundamental capacity to live a dignified life in detention, including access to water, food and health care.”
Medium shot: speakers and mediator behind panel at the press conference
SOUNDBITE (English) – Fionnuala Ní Aoláin, UN Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms while countering terrorism: “The mass, indefinite and arbitrary detention of children, particularly boys, in various types of facilities premised on the alleged threat that they pose to security based on their or their parent's alleged prior links with Daesh. I want to make clear that not a single in many cases legal determination has been made for the vast majority of these children detained, whether they're detained in prisons, camps or centers.”
Medium shot: speakers and mediator behind panel at the press conference
SOUNDBITE (English) – Fionnuala Ní Aoláin, UN Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms while countering terrorism: “31,000 children, mass detention, arbitrary detention of children. It is, in my view, no doubt that this facility is a detention facility because no one can leave or enter without the permission of the detaining authority.”
Close shot: attendees typing at the press conference
SOUNDBITE (English) – Fionnuala Ní Aoláin, UN Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms while countering terrorism: “It is entirely unacceptable that we have 40’000 plus people held in a detention facility, where 60% of them are children under the age of 12 and we have absolutely no idea what's happening in that facility. I think to say that this is a breach of international law is perhaps the understatement of the day.”
Medium shot: speakers and mediator behind panel at the press conference
SOUNDBITE (English) – Fionnuala Ní Aoláin, UN Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms while countering terrorism: “Anyone seriously thinking about long term security in this region, who is not addressing the systematic and arbitrary detention of thousands of children, is closing their eyes to the long-term security implications of what it means to hold children in these kinds of conditions of detention indefinitely.”
Medium shot: attendee at the press conference
SOUNDBITE (English) – Fionnuala Ní Aoláin, UN Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms while countering terrorism: “They won't sleep at night because the separation is usually happening at night without notice, often violently and we had consistent reports both from the detaining authorities and the mothers, that mothers are hiding their boys, so they won't be taken.”
Wide shot: attendees at the press conference
SOUNDBITE (English) – Fionnuala Ní Aoláin, UN Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms while countering terrorism: “The other black hole of non-repatriation, which is the non-repatriation of men and the unwillingness to return men. And again, as boys age into being men who are separated and kept in facilities, what that means is that you're condemning the boy child in this facility to a life of imprisonment on no legal grounds, except for the fact that he was born there. He happens to be a boy and he's deemed to be associated with terrorism by virtue of where he was born and who he was born to.”
Close shot: attendee taking notes at the press conference
Medium shot: attendees, speakers and mediator behind panel at the press conference
Medium shot: attendees, speakers and mediator behind panel at the press conference

Northeast Syria: Arbitrary detention of children needs to stop, says top rights expert

Mass arbitrary and indefinite detentions of children without legal process in northeast Syria need to cease immediately, the UN Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms while countering terrorism, Ms. Fionnuala Ní Aoláin, said on Friday.

Briefing journalists after returning from a six-day visit to the country, the independent UN-appointed expert said that she had witnessed “mass arbitrary detention of children, incommunicado detention, disappearances, structural and systematic discrimination for detained person on the basis of their nationality…Torture, cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment, as well as the deprivation of the fundamental capacity to live a dignified life in detention, including access to water, food and health care.”

Ms. Ní Aoláin said that she had been particularly appalled to witness “the mass, indefinite and arbitrary detention of children, particularly boys, in various types of facilities premised on the alleged threat that they pose to security based on their or their parent's alleged prior links with Da'esh…I want to make clear that not a single in many cases legal determination has been made for the vast majority of these children detained, whether they're detained in prisons, camps or centers.”

During her visit, Ms. Ni Aoláin met with Syrian government official and focused on detention and repatriation issues in the northeast.

The UN Special Rapporteur had access to several prisons and detention places, a first for an independent human rights expert. She also visited prisons and sites of detention in Qamishli, Gweirna, Al Hol districts and al-Malikya city.

According to the camp authorities, almost 50,000 people live in the Al Hol camp: 15,000 women, 3,000 men and more than 30,000 children.

Some “31,000 children, mass detention, arbitrary detention of children,” Ms. Ni Aoláin said. “It is, in my view, no doubt that this facility is a detention facility because no one can leave or enter without the permission of the detaining authority."

Conditions in Al Hol camp are dire, despite the efforts of under-funded humanitarian actors. The Special Rapporteur highlighted the major humanitarian challenges experienced by the population, particularly access to water and electricity. She emphasised the broader constrictions on health services affecting both the general population and those held in detention facilities as well as serious concerns about the situation of women in the Annex at Al Hol, given the lack of meaningful access by anyone other than security actors to that location.

“It is entirely unacceptable that we have 40,000 plus people held in a detention facility where 60 per cent of them are children under the age of 12. And we have absolutely no idea what's happening in that facility,” Ms. Ni Aoláin said. “I think to say that this is a breach of international law is perhaps the understatement of the day.“

The top rights expert recognized the intense political and security complexity of the situation on the ground, including the presence of a number of State and non-state actors exercising various forms of control and competences over parts of the population and institutions in this region, as well as the presence of UN Security Council-designated terrorist groups.

The Special Rapporteur observed the systematic practice of separating boys, in particular third country nationals, from their mothers in the camps upon reaching adolescence, causing irreparable harm which would inevitably work against any stated efforts at rehabilitation.

“Anyone seriously thinking about long-term security in this region who is not addressing the systematic and arbitrary detention of thousands of children is closing their eyes to the long-term security implications of what it means to hold children in these kinds of conditions of detention indefinitely.”

Ms. Ni Aoláin added that “they won't sleep at night because the separation is usually happening at night without notice, often violently. And we had consistent reports both from the detaining authorities and the mothers, that mothers are hiding their boys, so they won't be taken.”

Most of the camp inmates are Iraqi, Syrian and third country nationals. The Special Rapporteur appealed to all States whose nationals are detained in northeast Syria to live up to their fundamental human rights obligations and repatriate their nationals. She regretted that she was unable to access the annex in Al Hol where third country nations are detained.

“The other black hole is non-repatriation, which is the non-repatriation of men and the unwillingness to return men and again, as boys age into being men who are separated and kept in facilities”, she said. “What that means is that you're condemning the boy child in this facility to a life of imprisonment on no legal grounds, except for the fact that he was born there. He happens to be a boy and he's deemed to be associated with terrorism by virtue of where he was born and who he was born to.”

The Special Rapporteurs are independent experts and serve in their individual capacity who work on a voluntary basis. They are not UN staff and do not receive a salary for their work.

-ends-

Teleprompter

Excellencies, delegates, members of civil society and national human rights institutions, I'm honoured to present my first report as Special Rapporteur on the human rights situation in the Palestinian territory occupied since 1967 to the Human Rights Council.

Allow me to express my gratitude to the distinguished members of the Council for bestowing upon me this mandate that I undertake with unwavering dedication, rigour and impartiality.

I chose to focus this report on arbitrary deprivation of liberty early in my tenure because of the gravity of this phenomenon in the Occupied Palestinian Territory.

Since 1967, Israel has detained approximately 1,000,000 Palestinians in the occupied territory, including 10s of thousands of children.

Currently, there are 5000 Palestinians in Israeli prisons, including 160 children, and 1100 of them are detained without charge or trial.

Let me be clear from the outset, I do not condone any acts of violence that the Palestinians might have committed or might commit while living under an unlawful occupation or in in the pursuit to end it.

However, we must acknowledge that most Palestinians have been convicted through a series of violations of international law, such as discrimination, persecution and breaches of due process, and for ordinary acts of life in the exercise of legitimate rights.

I found the widespread and systemic systemic arbitrary deprivation of liberty of Palestinians is a structural component of the regime that Israel has imposed upon them.

And let's look closer at the structure.

The enforcement of the probation of liberty of Palestinians in the occupied territory rests in the hand of the Israeli military, which writes and forces and reviews martial laws that only applied to Palestinians.

Israeli domestic laws, meanwhile, applies to Israeli settlers illegally residing therein.

This dual legal system is the pillar of Israel's apartheid regime.

The presence of the Palestinian Authority does not change this reality, nor does it alter Israel's obligation under international law.

An intricate web of military orders, about 2500 of them an emergency regulation dating back to the British Mandate era, dictate offences enforced at the discretion of the Israeli military.

I would like you to consider just some of the legal grounds that lead to Palestinians arrest and detention.

Political gatherings of more than 10 people, including processions or vigils without a permit by the army, are criminalised with 10 years imprisonment.

Entering military declare restricted areas in the West Bank and this Jerusalem is subject to 7 to 10 years imprisonment.

Having contacts with or possessing materials related to hostile organisation is punishable with 10 years imprisonment.

And let me be clear, all major Palestinian organisations, from political parties to charities and human rights organisations are considered hostile.

Membership in any group where other members commit specific offences is punishable by life imprisonment.

This draconian legal regime, which is also vaguely drafted and confusing across military orders that overlap and contradict each other, lays the foundation of a coercive environment whereby Palestinians are constantly at risk of being imprisoned, often by carrying out the simples simple acts of life from farming, fishing, going to school, but also opposing the occupation.

The broad base to incarcerate Palestinians notwithstanding, Palestinians are routinely arrested and detained without charge or trial, often based on secret evidence and for an indefinite period of time, leaving them in a limbo of uncertainty.

[Other language spoken]

Military courts, staffed by entirely military personnel, are the primary and often the only judicial Ave accessible to Palestinians.

And in military courts, where rights to defence is simply not enforceable, Palestinians are presumed guilty, registering a steep **** conviction rate of 99% and forcing most of them to resort to plea bargain, confessing crimes that they have not committed.

The very common unlawful deportation outside the occupied Palestinian territory, because 80% of Palestinian prisoners are detained against international law in Israel, triggers A domino effect of violations ranging from confinement in in in places where legal defence, legal counsel and families cannot access the detainee or the OR the prisoners.

But while in Israeli custody, Palestinians are subject to all sort of physical and psychological abuses, often to elicit confessions.

And some of these treatments may amount to torture and other cruel, inhumane and degrading treatment.

Children liable to imprisonment since 12 years of age are treated as inhumanely and lawlessly as adults, forced to spend an average of 12.5 days in solitary confinement and most of the detention without contact with families or lawyers.

The prison experience leaves an indelible, indelible, traumatic mark on them, breaking the spirit of future generations.

[Other language spoken]

It is common practise for the Israeli forces to detain the bodies of Palestinian deceased in custody or killed during Israeli armed armed attacks.

Most arrests take place within one kilometres from the 270 colonies that Israel has has built for 750,000 Israeli in Israelis in the Occupied Palestinian territory, against one of the most foundational norms of international humanitarian law.

And often during raids and incursions, often at the date of light, at the end of at the dead of night, to instil fear and to make sure to quote Israeli soldiers, to make sure that their presence is felt.

This is why I say it is the security of Israel's systematic appropriation of Palestinian land and dispossession of the Palestinian people that the longest occupation of modern history is meant to defend, not the security of Israel as a member of the family of the United Nations, which remains sacrosanct.

Occupying power frames the Palestinians as a collective ******, ultimately decivilianising them, namely eroding their status as protected person under international law.

On top of it, the individual and mass deprivation of of liberty dovetails with a mass entrapment that captivates the Palestinian Sasa people in the occupied territory through physical, bureaucratic and digital confinement techniques.

Transforming the occupied Palestinian territory as a whole into a constantly surveilled open air prison.

Walls, checkpoints, alternative roads, segregated roads which fragment the territory into something that evoked the carceral archipelago of a Cauldian memory.

Bureaucratic barriers consisting of permits and prohibitions that regulate every instance of Palestinian life from visiting family, deciding to travel abroad, choosing residents and and cultivating farming their land.

Surveillance technologies that follow the Palestinians everywhere they are.

This is what the Palestinians live under.

This further restricts the Palestinians specially and psychologically, creating a pervasive system of discipline, control and punishment to anyone who objects or who opposes the system.

This large scale carcerality is an essential feature of settler colonial regimes, which in history have crashed the native populations while incrementally seizing their land.

In this context, Palestinian authorities operate in captivity under Israel's omnipresent control, and they're not a state apparatus geared to defend or protect the Palestinians, as exemplified by the recent attacks by the Israeli army or heavily armed settlers in Nablus, Jeanine, Jericho, Hawara, Masafir, Yatta, Turmosaya, orif Umsafa and the Gaza Strip.

Therefore, invoking both parties to calm down is misleading.

Israel's unlawful carceral practises are tantamount to international crimes, as I documented in my report, which warrant an urgent investigation by the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court.

All the more as these offences appear to be part of a plan to depalestinianise the territory.

This threatened the existence of the Palestinians as a people, as a national cohesive group.

It is critical that international community recognises the legality of Israel's occupation naturally leading to apartheid.

This cannot be rectified.

This cannot be made more humane by merely addressing some of its most severe consequences.

It is to be brought to an end and restored the rule of law and justice.

And I ask you, I urge you to, to follow up on this recommendation in the interest of both the Palestinians and the Israelis.

[Other language spoken]

According to our practise, we will start by hearing from the delegations of the countries concerned.

I now give the floor to the distinguished representative of Israel.

[Other language spoken]

I note that the delegation of Israel is not present in the room.

I now give the floor to the distinguished representative of the State of Palestine.

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[Other language spoken]