Administrative detention of Ms. Hana Yahya Shalabi / Ill-treatment, including sexual harassment / Harsh detention conditions

Arbitrary use of administrative detention against a Palestinian women/ Ill-treatment, including sexual harassment/ Harsh detention conditions

The International Secretariat of the World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT) requests your URGENT intervention in the following situation in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories.

Brief description of the situation

The International Secretariat of OMCT has been informed by a reliable source about the administrative detention of Ms. Hana Yahya Shalabi, 27 years old, as well as of the subsequent harsh conditions of her detention at Section 12 of Hasharon Prison, one of Israel’s largest prison facilities.

According to the information received, on 14 September 2009 at approximately 1:30 a.m., Israeli soldiers surrounded Ms. Hana Yahya Shalabi’s family home in Burquin Village, near the West Bank town of Jenin, ordered Ms. Hana Yahya Shalabi’s entire family outside of the house and demanded Ms. Hana Yahya Shalabi to give them her identity card. During the search of the house, one soldier reportedly took framed pictures of Ms. Hana Yahya Shalabi’s brother, Samer[1], and tore them apart. The soldiers also reportedly shouted and cursed her and her family, pushed her 63-year-old father with the butt of a rifle, handcuffed and arrested her.

According to the same information, Ms. Hana Yahya Shalabi was transferred in a military jeep to Salem Detention Centre, during which her abaya[2] came open, uncovering her clothes and parts of her body. At that moment, some of the soldiers allegedly took pictures of her, knowing she would feel offended and humiliated. When they arrived to Salem Detention Centre, she was given a quick physical examination and was then transferred to Kishon Detention Centre in Israel, where she was interrogated every day from 10:00 am until late hours in the evening for eight days.

During the interrogation period, she was allegedly held in solitary confinement in a very dirty cell measuring six square meters with no windows or natural sunlight. The lack of natural sunlight caused her to lose all sense of time. She was unable to monitor time in order to respect her fast in the period of Ramadan, so she decided not to eat at all, during the entire eight day period. She was allegedly subjected to sexual harassment and physical violence. During one interrogation session, one of the Israeli interrogators called her “habibti”(darling) in a provocative way. Ms. Hana Yahya Shalabi felt humiliated so she shouted at him. The interrogators reportedly responded by slapping her and beating her on her arms and hands. The guards then brought her back to her cell, where she was tied to her bed. They also took pictures of her in that position.

According to the same information, after the interrogation period concluded, Ms. Hana Yahya Shalabi remained at Kishon Detention Centre for nine days (Israeli authorities claimed for investigation reasons). On 29 September 2009, Israeli Military Commander Ilan Malka issued a six-month administrative detention order against Ms. Hana Yahya Shalabi, on the grounds that she posed a threat to the “security of the area”. The order was set to expire on 28 March 2010. On 5 October 2009, a judicial review of the order took place at the Court of Administrative Detainees in Ofer Military Base, near the West Bank city of Ramallah. On that occasion, the military judge confirmed the order of detention of six months. The judge based his decision on “secret information”[3] made available to him by the military prosecution and claimed that Ms. Hana Yahya Shalabi was intending to carry out a “terrorist attack”, though he provided no evidence to support this allegation. Ms. Hana Yahya Shalabi’s attorneys filed an appeal against her administrative detention order, but the appeal was refused. As the judge decided this time to count from the day she was detained, Ms. Hana Yahya Shalabi is now to be held detained, without charge or trial, until 13 March 2010.

On 1 October 2009, Ms. Hana Yahya Shalabi was finally transferred to Section 2 of Hasharon Prison, after spending 17 days at Kishon Detention Centre, where she was not given once a change of clean clothes. Due to overcrowding, she was placed in the same sector as female Israeli criminal offenders, violating the Israeli Prison Service Regulations[4] and placing her in a sector where Palestinian women enjoy fewer recreation hours and are usually subject of discrimination, humiliation and threats by Israeli prisoners. The attorney of the Palestinian NGO Addameer subsequently filed a complaint with the Hasharon Prison administration regarding her detention conditions. On 25 October 2009, after being held twenty five days among Israeli criminal offenders, she was eventually transferred to Section 12[5]. Ms. Hana Yahya Shalabi has been suffering from the harsh detention conditions and she has complained of overcrowding, humidity, lack of natural sunlight and adequate ventilation, as well as poor hygiene standards.

According to the same information, prior to her arrest by the Israeli authorities, Ms. Hana Yahya Shalabi was arrested and detained by the Palestinian intelligence forces for a week (she was detained from 9:00 am to 11:00 pm while being allowed to sleep at home) in 2009 for the purpose of interrogation.

Background Information

Israel has been holding hundreds of persons from the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT) in administrative detention. In the occupied Palestinian West Bank, the Israeli army carries out administrative detention on the basis of Military Order 1226, which empowers military commanders to detain an individual for up to six months if they have “reasonable grounds to presume that the security of the area or public security require the detention.” On or just before the expiry date, the detention order is also frequently renewed and this process can be continued indefinitely.

Administrative detention deprives detainees of basic safeguards, including the right to challenge the evidence on which the detention is based, warrants are not required, and the detainee may be held in incommunicado detention for an extended period, subject to renewal.

The United Nations Committee Against Torture has already expressed concern that administrative detention does not conform with article 16 of the Convention[6]. This type of indefinite administrative detention, following manifestly unfair proceedings, can amount to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment. On the issue of prison conditions of incarcerated Palestinian women, OMCT and the Public Committee Against Torture in Israel (PCATI) in a 2005 alternative country report to the United Nations Committee on Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), already highlighted that “female Palestinian detainees and prisoners are often held in poor conditions of detention that are in contravention of the standards set in Israeli law, international law and the UN Minimum Standard Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners”. Furthermore, in a study conducted by Addameer[7], it was found that lack of specialized gender sensitive care continues to be a problem for detainees in Hasharon prison and other places in the Occupied Territories.

The International Secretariat of OMCT expresses its deep concern about the situation of Ms. Hana Yahya Shalabi and, in particular, the fact that the procedure under which her administrative detention has been ordered, as well as her detention conditions, do not meet international human rights standards, including her right not to be arbitrarily detained as well as her absolute right at all times not to be subjected to any cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment, including sexual harassment.

Action requested

Please write to the authorities in Israel urging them to:

1. Guarantee, in all circumstances, the physical and psychological integrity of Ms. Hana Yahya Shalabi;
2. Guarantee immediate and unconditional access to all members of her family and adequate medical care, including the independent specialized, gender-specific care, that she may require;
3. Order her immediate release in the absence of valid legal charges that are consistent with international legal standards, or, if such charges exist, bring her promptly before an impartial, independent and competent tribunal that will ensure due process at all times;
4. Guarantee that adequate compensation is awarded to Ms. Hana Yahya Shalabi for the violation of her human rights;
5. At all times ensure strict respect for international human rights and humanitarian law in the exercise of its jurisdiction, including in connection with military operations in the Occupied Palestinian Territories.

Addresses

• Mr. Benjamin Netanyahu, Prime Minister, Office of the Prime Minister, 3, Kaplan Street, PO Box 187, Kiryat Ben-Gurion, Jerusalem, Israel, Fax: +972- 2-651 2631, Email: pm_eng@pmo.gov.il
• Mr. Menachem Mazuz, Attorney General, Fax: + 972 2 627 4481; + 972 2 628 5438; +972 2 530 3367
• Brigadier General Avihai Mandelblit, Military Judge Advocate General, 6 David Elazar Street, Hakirya, Tel Aviv, Israel, Fax: +972 3 608 0366, +972 3 569 4526, Email: arbel@mail.idf.il, avimn@idf.gov.il
• Permanent Mission of Israel to the United Nations Office and Specialized Institutions in Geneva, Avenue de la Paix 1-3, 1202 Geneva, Fax: +41 22 716 05 55, Email: mission-israel@geneva.mfa.gov.il

Please also write to the embassies of Israel in your respective country.

Geneva, 16 February 2010

Kindly inform us of any action undertaken quoting the code of this appeal in your reply.

[1] He was reportedly killed by the Israeli army on 29 September 2005 during an incursion in the village.

[2] Traditional Muslim religious dress covering the entire body worn by women over home clothes.

[3] Neither lawyers nor detainees are permitted to see the “secret information” used as a basis for the detention orders, rendering any possible legal defence meaningless.

[4] Administrative detainees are to be held separately from all other detainees and prisoners, including those who have been convicted of a crime.

[5] Building which now constitutes the prison complex served as the headquarters of the British Mounted Police during the British Mandate in Palestine and, as such, was never designed for the incarceration of women.

[6] CAT/C/ISR/CO/4, para 17.

[7] In Need of Protection. Palestinian Prisoners in Israeli Detention. http://www.aseerat.ps/files