The Special Committee also conducted a visit to Amman. Both in Gaza and Amman the Special Committee met with victims, witnesses and officials working on human rights. Testimonies disclose the scale human rights problems in the region. In particular, the situation of children is alarming. After the Israeli attacks (end of 2008/beginning of 2009) large parts of the infrastructure including schools, homes and water treatment facilities were not rebuild. Children suffer from a lack of access to education, health and psychological problems and from raids by Israeli soldiers in the middle of the night.
According to the Special Committee’s statement, Israel holds 6,000 Palestinians in prison, many of them children, some of them allegedly as young as 7 years old. Conditions of detention are seemingly very poor; harsh interrogation techniques, torture and ill-treatment, the denial of family visits and extended detention without charges appear frequently in these prisons.
The report by the Special Committee will be presented to the General Assembly in November 2011 and it will include recommendations to improve respect for human rights in the territories occupied by Israel since 1967.
