[Congressional Bills 116th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 2407 Introduced in House (IH)]
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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, interrogation, abuse, or ill-treatment of
Palestinian children, and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the
United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ``Promoting Human Rights for
Palestinian Children Living Under Israeli Military Occupation Act''.
SEC. 2. FINDINGS.
Congress finds the following:
(1) Children are entitled to special protections and due
process rights under international human rights law and
international humanitarian law, regardless of guilt or
innocence or the gravity of an alleged offense.
(2) The Government of Israel and its military detains
around 500 to 700 Palestinian children between the ages of 12
and 17 each year and prosecutes them before a military court
system that lacks basic and fundamental guarantees of due
process in violation of international standards.
(3) Israel has ratified the Convention on the Rights of the
Child, which states--
(A) in article 37(a), that ``no child shall be
subject to torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading
treatment or punishment'';
(B) in article 37(b), that the arrest, detention or
imprisonment of a child ``shall be used only as a
measure of last resort and for the shortest appropriate
period of time'';
(C) in article 37(c), that ``every child deprived
of liberty shall be treated with humanity and respect
for the inherent dignity of the human person, and in a
manner which takes into account the needs of persons of
his or her age''; and
(D) in article 37(d), that ``[e]very child deprived
of his or her liberty shall have the right to prompt
access to legal and other appropriate assistance, as
well as the right to challenge the legality of the
deprivation of his or her liberty before a court or
other competent, independent and impartial authority,
and to a prompt decision on any such action''.
(4) In the Israeli-occupied West Bank, there are two
separate legal systems, with Israeli military law imposed on
Palestinians and Israeli civilian law applied to Israeli
settlers.
(5) Approximately 2,900,000 Palestinians live in the West
Bank, of which around 45 percent are children under the age of
18, who have lived their entire lives under Israeli military
occupation.
(6) Since 2000, more than 10,000 Palestinian children have
been subject to the Israeli military court system.
(7) Israeli security forces detain children under the age
of 12 for interrogation for extended periods of time even
though prosecution of children under 12 is prohibited by
Israeli military law.
(8) Human Rights Watch, in its World Report 2018, reported
that Israeli Security Forces detained Palestinian children
``often using unnecessary force, questioned them without a
family member present, and made them sign confessions in
Hebrew, which most did not understand''.
(9) Human Rights Watch documented, in a July 2015 report
titled ``Israel: Security Forces Abuse Palestinian Children'',
that such detentions also included the use of chokeholds,
beatings, and coercive interrogation on children between the
ages of 11 and 15 years.
(10) The Israeli human rights organization B'Tselem issued
a report in 2018 describing the treatment of Palestinian
children under Israeli military occupation: ``Every year,
hundreds of Palestinian minors undergo the same scenario.
Israeli security forces pick them up on the street or at home
in the middle of the night, then handcuff and blindfold them
and transport them to interrogation, often subjecting them to
violence en route. Exhausted and scared--some having spent a
long time in transit, some having been roused from sleep, some
having had nothing to eat or drink for hours--the minors are
then interrogated. They are completely alone in there, cut off
from the world, without any adult they know and trust by their
side, and without having been given a chance to consult with a
lawyer before the interrogation. The interrogation itself often
involves threats, yelling, verbal abuse and sometimes physical
violence. Its sole purpose is to get the minors to confess or
provide information about others.''.
(11) The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) concluded,
in a February 2013 report titled ``Children in Israeli Military
Detention'', that the ``ill-treatment of children who come in
contact with the military detention system appears to be
widespread, systematic and institutionalized throughout the
process, from the moment of arrest until the child's
prosecution and eventual conviction and sentencing''.
(12) The 2013 UNICEF report further determines that the
Israeli system of military detention of Palestinian children
profoundly deviates from international norms, stating that ``in
no other country are children systematically tried by juvenile
military courts that, by definition, fall short of providing
the necessary guarantees to ensure respect for their rights''.
(13) UNICEF also released reports in October 2013 and
February 2015 noting that Israeli authorities have, since March
2013, issued new military orders and taken steps to reinforce
existing military and police standard operating procedures
relating to the detention of Palestinian children. However, the
reports still found continued and persistent evidence of ill-
treatment of Palestinian children detained by Israeli forces.
(14) In 2013, the annual Country Report on Human Rights
Practices for Israel and the Occupied Territories (``Annual
Report'') published by the Department of State noted that
Israeli security services continued to abuse, and in some cases
torture minors, frequently arrested on suspicion of stone-
throwing, in order to coerce confessions. The torture tactics
used included threats, intimidation, long-term handcuffing,
beatings, and solitary confinement.
(15) The State Department's 2013 Annual Report also stated
that ``signed confessions by Palestinian minors, written in
Hebrew, a language most could not read, continued to be used as
evidence against them in Israeli military courts''.
(16) The State Department's 2016 Annual Report noted a
``significant increase in detentions of minors'' in 2016, and
that ``Israeli authorities continued to use confessions signed
by Palestinian minors, written in Hebrew''. It also highlighted
the renewed use of ``administrative detention'' against
Palestinians, including children, a practice in which a
detainee may be held indefinitely, without charge or trial, by
the order of a military commander or other government official.
(17) The nongovernmental organization Defense for Children
International Palestine collected affidavits from 739 West Bank
children who were detained between 2013 and 2018, and concluded
that--
(A) 73 percent of the children endured physical
violence following arrest;
(B) under Israeli military law, children do not
have the right to a lawyer during interrogation;
(C) 96 percent of the children did not have a
parent present during their interrogation;
(D) 74 percent of the children were not properly
informed of their rights by Israeli police;
(E) interrogators used stress positions, threats of
violence, and isolation to coerce confessions from
detained children;
(F) 29 children were detained and placed in
administrative detention, or detention without charge
or trial, since Israel renewed the practice against
minors in October 2015, and
(G) 122 children were held in pre-trial, pre-charge
isolation for interrogation purposes for an average
period of 13 days.
(18) Amendments to Israeli military law concerning the
detention of Palestinian children have had little to no impact
on the treatment of children during the first 24 to 48 hours
after an arrest, when the majority of their ill-treatment
occurs.
(19) In 2013, the United Nations Committee on the Rights of
the Child reviewed Israel's compliance with the Convention on
the Rights of the Child and declared that Palestinian children
arrested by Israeli forces ``continue to be systematically
subject to degrading treatment, and often to acts of torture''
and that Israel had ``fully disregarded'' the previous
recommendations of the Committee to comply with international
law.
(20) The United Nations Committee Against Torture, in 2016,
reviewed Israel's compliance with the Convention Against
Torture and reported: ``allegations of many instances in which
Palestinian minors were exposed to torture or ill-treatment,
including to obtain confessions; were given confessions to sign
in Hebrew, a language they do not understand; and were
interrogated in the absence of a lawyer or a family member. The
Committee is also concerned that many of these children, like
many other Palestinians, are deprived of liberty in facilities
located in Israel, thus hindering access to visits of relatives
who live in the Occupied Palestinian Territory.''.
(21) Existing Federal statutory provisions known as the
``Leahy law'' codified at section 620M of the Foreign
Assistance Act of 1961, 22 U.S.C. 2378d and section 362 of
Title 10 of the United States Code, prohibit the United States
Government from using funds for assistance to units of foreign
security forces where there is credible information implicating
that unit in the commission of gross violations of human
rights, including torture.
(22) The United States provides in excess of $3.8 billion
in annual foreign military assistance to the Government of
Israel which enables the military detention and abuse of
Palestinian children by Israel's military system of juvenile
detention.
SEC. 3. PURPOSE.
The purpose of this Act is to promote and protect the human rights
of Palestinian children living under Israeli military occupation.
SEC. 4. SENSE OF CONGRESS.
It is the sense of Congress that--
(1) the detention, prosecution, and ill-treatment of
Palestinian children living under military occupation in a
military court system that lacks basic and fundamental
guarantees of due process by the Government of Israel--
(A) violates international law and internationally
recognized standards of human rights;
(B) is contrary to the values of the American
people and the efforts of the United States to support
equality, human rights, and dignity for both
Palestinians and Israelis; and
(C) undermines efforts by the United States and the
international community to achieve a just and lasting
peace between Israel and the Palestinian people; and
(2) Israeli and Palestinian civil society organizations
working to advance human rights, justice, and equal treatment
for Palestinians living under Israeli military occupation, as
well as Jewish and non-Jewish citizens of Israel, are essential
to promoting human dignity, democratic values, and
international humanitarian law, and therefore deserve
recognition and support from the United States and the American
people.
SEC. 5. STATEMENT OF POLICY.
It is the policy of the United States to promote human rights for
Palestinian children living under Israeli military occupation and to
declare Israel's system of military detention of Palestinian children
as a practice that results in widespread and systematic human rights
abuses amounting to gross violations of human rights inconsistent with
international humanitarian law and the laws and values of the United
States.
SEC. 6. LIMITATION ON ASSISTANCE TO SECURITY FORCES.
(a) In General.--Section 620M of the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961
(22 U.S.C. 2378d; commonly known as the ``Leahy Law'') is amended by
adding at the end the following new subsection:
``(e) Specific Limitations Concerning Military Courts.--
Notwithstanding any other provision of law, no funds authorized to be
appropriated for assistance to a foreign country may be used to support
the military detention, interrogation, abuse, or ill-treatment of
children in violation of international humanitarian law or to support
the use against children of any of the following practices:
``(1) Torture or cruel, inhumane, or degrading treatment.
``(2) Physical violence, including restraint in stress
positions.
``(3) Hooding, sensory deprivation, death threats, or other
forms of psychological abuse.
``(4) Incommunicado detention or solitary confinement.
``(5) Administrative detention, including when a detainee
is held indefinitely, without charge or trial, by the order of
a military commander or other government official.
``(6) Arbitrary detention.
``(7) Denial of access to parents or legal counsel during
interrogations.
``(8) Confessions obtained by force or coercion.''.
SEC. 7. AUTHORIZATION OF FUNDS TO MONITOR HUMAN RIGHTS ABUSES AND
PROVIDE TREATMENT TO PALESTINIAN CHILD VICTIMS OF
MILITARY DETENTION AND TORTURE.
(a) Funding.--There is authorized to be appropriated not less than
$19,000,000 each fiscal year to the Secretary of State to be made
available to nongovernmental organizations from the United States,
Israel, or the Occupied Palestinian Territory for the following
purposes:
(1) Monitoring human rights abuses associated with israel's
military detention of palestinian children.--
(A) In general.--Nongovernment organizations with
human rights experience are eligible to receive funding
under this subsection. Such funding shall be used to
monitor, assess, and document incidents of Palestinian
children subjected to Israeli military detention,
including interviews with victims, family members of
victims, relevant community members, health care
providers, legal advocates, civil society monitors, and
Israeli military officials.
(B) Public availability.--All information and
documentation gathered pursuant to subparagraph (A),
including affidavits, interviews, photographs, video,
and other relevant material, shall be made publicly
available via the internet and in annual reports
subject to the determination that published information
shall not put victims or sources at risk or in danger
resulting from persecution, retaliation, or
retribution.
(C) Limitation.--Funding under this paragraph may
not exceed 50 percent of total funds authorized to be
appropriated under this subsection.
(2) Providing physical, psychological, and emotional health
treatment, support, and rehabilitation for palestinian children
victims of military detention, abuse, and torture.--
(A) In general.--Nongovernmental organizations with
experience in providing physical, psychological, and
emotional treatment for victims of abuse, trauma, or
torture described in subparagraph (B) are eligible to
receive funding under this subsection. Such funding
shall be provided to a collaboration of United States,
Israeli, and Palestinian treatment providers determined
by the Secretary of State to be best suited to meet the
rehabilitation needs of victims. No member of any
nongovernmental organization providing treatment under
this paragraph may be employed or act as an agent or
behalf of an intelligence agency of the United States,
Israel, or the Palestinian Authority.
(B) Eligibility.--Victims described in this
subparagraph are any Palestinian age 21 or younger
providing documentation of military detention as a
child having occurred since January 1, 2009.
(C) Reporting.--As a condition on the receipt of
funding under this subsection, nongovernmental
organizations shall issue an annual public report of
activities, including findings and a clinical
assessment of the physical and psychological effects of
military detention on children, adolescents, and adults
who experience trauma as children, and recommendations
to the international community regarding best practices
for treating child victims of military detention.
(b) Program Name.--Amounts made available pursuant to subsection
(a) shall be referred to as the ``Human Rights Monitoring and Treatment
for Palestinian Child Victims of Israeli Military Detention Fund''.
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