The Israeli army’s use of lethal force against Palestinian children during the last 8 weeks,  constitutes an extreme violation of basic human rights principles as laid out in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the Fourth Geneva Convention and the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC). The Israeli army is failing to abide by its own guidelines and open-fire regulations as well as international regulations for crowd control, by making use of tear gas, rubber-coated metal bullets and live ammunition, heavy machine gun fire and rockets to fight Palestinians demonstrators, the majority of whom are armed only with stones and Molotov cocktails. From September 29 to November 19 2000, Israeli military forces have killed 41 Palestinian children under the age of 16 – please see the enclosed list. As several human rights organizations have noted this strongly suggests an excessive use of force by the Israeli troops.  

The excessive use of force by the Israeli military forces in the ongoing clashes is a direct violation of both international human rights and humanitarian law. In particular, it contravenes Israel’s obligations under the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), which was ratified by Israel in November of 1991.

 Article 2 of the CRC explicitly declares that “States Parties shall respect and ensure the rights set forth in the present Convention to each child within their jurisdiction…” Hence, Israel is responsible for the implementation of the provisions of the CRC in the Occupied Territories. Article 4 states that the States Parties are obliged to take all appropriate legislative, administrative, and other measures for the implementation of the rights recognized in the Convention. In our view, Israel has violated the following articles of the CRC:

 Article 6.2 “ State Parties shall ensure, to the maximum extent possible, the survival and development of the child.”    

Article 38.4 “In accordance with their obligations under international humanitarian law to protect the civilian population in armed conflicts, States Parties shall take all feasible measures to ensure protection and care of children who are affected by an armed conflict.”

 We are extremely disturbed by the unacceptably high numbers of child casualties, and in particular by the seeming lack of investigations into what appear to be clear violations of Israel’s obligations under international treaties. We would be grateful for a response to the following questions:

 1)      Have investigation files been opened on the killing of the 41 children on the enclosed list? If so, will Palestinian witnesses be consulted?

2)      What pro-active steps is the Israeli army taking to ensure that soldiers abide by the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child?

3)      What pro-active steps is the Israeli army taking to ensure that soldiers abide by the open-fire regulations?

4)      Why does the Israeli army not use non-lethal instruments of crowd control as a first step in attempting to disperse protesters?