A/HRC/34/36 lawyer. When a judge ordered his release on bail, the authorities instead held him under administrative detention, using Israel’s emergency laws. He was released six months later, having never been tried for any offence. Five other children were detained for posting comments on social media that were deemed to constitute incitement. 26 27. In September 2016, the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention highlighted the flaws of the Israeli system of administrative detention and found that the detention of a 16-year-old from Ramallah had been arbitrary. 27 However, the boy remains in detention. 28. The High Commissioner has previously raised concern about changes in law and policy that have sought to increase the time that Palestinian children in East Jerusalem spend in prison — both during pretrial detention and after conviction. 28 In at least eight cases documented by OHCHR, children between the ages of 14 and 16 years received an average of more than two years in prison for throwing stones, with sentences ranging from 12 to 39 months. Prior to the changes in Israeli legislation and policy guidelines between 2014 and 2015, they would have been sentenced to between two and four months for the same offence.29 The Association for Civil Rights in Israel, which examined such cases until December 2015, found a significant increase in the duration that Palestinian children in East Jerusalem spend in detention, leading also to questionable plea bargains based on confessions obtained under duress.30 29. In August 2016, Israel’s Parliament approved amendments to the Israeli Youth Law, which allows for children between the ages of 12 and 14 to be sentenced to imprisonment for specific serious violent crimes, including murder, manslaughter and attempted murder. Under the amendments, the actual serving of the sentences would be deferred until the children found guilty of such crimes reach the age of 14. The High Commissioner is concerned that such steps ignore the importance of rehabilitation for children and noted the law is inconsistent with Israel’s obligations under international law to explore alternatives to imprisonment, which should only be a last resort for children. 30. Although the Israeli authorities apply the law to children in Israel and in occupied East Jerusalem, statements by politicians that cast the law as a response to terrorism raise concerns that it will be used predominantly against Palestinian children in occupied East Jerusalem.31 Military law applied by Israel in other parts of the West Bank already allows for Palestinians over the age of 12 to be imprisoned. 4. Collective punishment 31. The practice of collective punitive action, which is unlawful and prohibited by international law, increased during the reporting period. Israel continued to punitively demolish family homes of Palestinians who reportedly attacked Israelis and to withhold the bodies of alleged attackers who are killed to prevent families from conducting funeral rites. According to the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, in the reporting period, 41 homes were demolished or sealed, leading to the forcible eviction of 218 Palestinians, including 89 children. At the time of reporting, the bodies of 27 alleged attackers who had been killed were still being held by Israeli authorities. 32 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 See www.dci-palestine.org/facebook_posts_land_palestinian_teens_in_administrative_detention. See A/HRC/WGAD/2016/24. See A/HRC/31/40, para. 50. See www.dci-palestine.org/east_jerusalem_teens_hit_with_harsh_sentences_for_throwing_stones. See www.acri.org.il/en/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/Arrested-Childhood0216-en.pdf. See www.knesset.gov.il/spokesman/eng/PR_eng.asp?PRID=12206. Figures provided by OCHA. 7