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Palestinians: Children

Question for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office

UIN HL14046, tabled on 9 March 2021

To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the report by Defence for Children International Isolated and Alone, published in December 2020; and, in particular, the finding that Palestinian children are routinely detained in solitary confinement for an average of more than 14 days for interrogation purposes.

Answered on

23 March 2021

We are aware of the Defense for Children's report entitled, 'Isolated and Alone: Palestinian children held in solitary confinement by Israeli authorities for interrogation'. We remain committed to working with Israel to secure improvements to the practices surrounding children in detention and regularly raise this with the Israeli Ministry of Justice, most recently on 23 February 2021. Our Embassy in Tel Aviv will continue to have a regular dialogue with Israel on this issue. We also fund projects providing legal aid to assist children with legal representation and capacity building assistance to local lawyers. We continue to call on the Israeli authorities to comply with their obligations under international law.