OCPA: International Community Must Break its Silence

OCPA: International Community Must Break its Silence Over Prisoners

Gaza- Rai Online
Translated by Ibraheem Ghunaim

The Palestinian Independent Agency for the Prosecution of the Zionist Occupation Crimes (OCPA) expresses its concern over the lives of thousands of Palestinian prisoners who are engaged in the “Battle of the Empty Stomachs” in protest against punitive procedures and practices of the Israeli Prison Service (IPS), which have worsened over the past five years. The service is deliberately mistreating the prisoners through subjecting them to cruel, inhuman and degrading conditions, and depriving them of health care.

The Agency started that IPS keeps torturing prisoners through daily insults, putting them in solitary confinement, strip searches and deprivation of family visits. In addition, the service prevents the prisoners from accessing secondary and university education, and renews administrative detention without legal justification.

The Agency confirms that such procedures breach international humanitarian law and human rights, especially the Fourth Geneva Convention (1949) and the Declaration on the Protection of All Persons from Being Subjected to Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment. This declaration was adopted and proclaimed in accordance with the resolution of General Assembly of UN 3452(d-30) on 9th December 1975, and in accordance with the Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners. And the principles of UN and the International Convention Against Torture adopted by General Assembly in 1988 on the protection of those subject to any form of detention and imprisonment.

The Agency calls on the international community to shoulder its responsibility and break the silence over the suffering of Palestinian prisoners who are fighting the “Battle of the Empty Stomachs.”

It demands the United Nations to force the Israeli authorities to respect the principles of International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights, and signatories of the Fourth Geneva Convention to fulfill their obligations referred to in the convention. The Agency calls upon all human rights organizations and the International Committee of the Red Cross to intervene to save the prisoners.

The agency also calls upon the Arab League and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation to activate the prisoners issue internationally and address it in the Security Council.

The Agency confirms that the demands of the Palestinian prisoners are legal, legitimate and humane, as set forth in all the international conventions.

ENDS

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