Shadow Justice Secretary calls for end to child rights abuses in Israel
Labour's Shadow Justice Secretary, Sadiq Khan MP, has written an article for the Labour Friends of Palestine calling for an end to discrimination against and abuse of Palestinian children in the Israeli military justice system. Khan visited Palestine with Caabu in December 2011.
He says:
...the international community cannot sit quietly by and allow the continued contravention of the UNCRC. If we believe children should be entitled to a childhood, then we must act to stop the blurring of the lines between childhood and adulthood in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. Pressure should be applied by all governments that believe in the UNCRC. It does not matter whether one sees themselves as a friend of Palestine, a friend of Israel or a friend of both, we must move beyond rhetoric and repeated condemnations and take action.
Khan's words accentuate much of the work in Caabu's detailed report 'Palestinian detainees: no security in injustice.' The report emphasises the seriousness of the prisoner issue, and how the widespread use of detention without trial, rampant ill-treatment and ethnically-segregated systems of law entrench mistrust, increase tensions and ultimately exacerbate the conflict. Read it here.