New Defence for Children International (DCI) report: Bound, Blindfolded and Convicted: Children held in military
detention (2012)
On 20 March 2012, DCI-Palestine launched a new report: Bound, Blindfolded and Convicted: Children held in military detention.
The report is the culmination of four year’s work by DCI, with the support of the European Union, focusing on verifying
reports of ill-treatment and torture of children in the Israeli military detention system. The findings of the report
are based on 311 sworn affidavits taken from children between January 2008 and January 2012. The report also includes:
• An interview with a lawyer who represents children in the military courts;
• An interview with the director of the YMCA rehabilitation programme;
• An interview with an Israeli soldier, courtesy of Breaking the Silence;
• A Psychological opinion into the effects of military detention on children; and
• 25 case studies taken from child-detainees.
The report found that there is a systematic pattern of ill-treatment, and in some cases torture, of children held in the
military detention system, with the majority of the abuse occurring during the first 48 hours. The key findings of the
report are presented in the table below:Common complaints and areas of concernNumber of casesPercentage of children1 Hand ties29695%2 Blindfolds28190%3 Physical violence 23475%4 Detention inside Israel in violation of Article 7619663%5 Arrested between midnight and 5:00 am 18860%6 Confession during interrogation18058%7 Threats17857%8 Verbal abuse and/or humiliation 16954%9 Strip searched10233%10 Transferred on floor of vehicle9832%11 Signed/shown documents written in Hebrew9129%12 Solitary confinement3812%
The testimonies reveal that most children are arrested from villages located close to friction points, namely
settlements built in violation of international law, and roads used by the Israeli army or settlers. The report includes
10 recommendations, which if implemented, would reduce the level of ill-treatment, but no one should be under any
illusion that the treatment documented in the report can be eliminated so long as the friction points remain and
Palestinian children are treated as second-class individuals.
The full report is available online here http://www.dci-palestine.org/sites/default/files/report_0.pdf
Hard copies are available on request.
ENDS