David Ward – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by David Ward on 2014-06-26.

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what progress he has made in ensuring that Palestinian children are interrogated only in the presence of their parents and lawyers.

Hugh Robertson

The Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice, my right hon. Friend the Member for Epsom and Ewell (Mr Grayling), raised the treatment of child detainees with the Israeli Supreme Court President during his visit to Israel in May.

As a recent progress report by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) indicates, Israel has taken some positive steps towards addressing the recommendations in UNICEF’s Children in Israeli Military Detention report. These include the introduction of legal obligations to inform the child’s parents of an arrest and grant them legal status to be represented in court, as well as to notify minors of their legal rights, and standard operating procedures on methods of restraint. We will continue to work, both through bilateral engagement and through the EU, to encourage Israel to take further positive steps.