A/HRC/12/37 page 17 41. In the OPT, the Israeli military order allowing administrative detention states that persons can be detained for up to six months, with the possibility of indefinite extension (to be decided by the military commander in the region) where there is a “reasonable basis for believing that the security of the region or public safety” so requires.69 In a letter to an Israeli NGO dated 21 January 2009, the Government of Israel stated that there were 546 Palestinians being detained under administrative detention provisions. Of those 546, 42 had been detained for more than two years.70 The number of administrative detainees declined steadily throughout 2008, from 813 in January to the aforementioned 546 in December.71 By 31 March 2009, there were 506 administrative detainees in Israeli prisons, including 2 children, out of a total of 7,884 Palestinians detained in Israel, of which 408 were children.72 42. The Israeli practice of administrative detention as described above is in violation of several provisions of article 9 of ICCPR, which prohibits arbitrary detention and states, inter alia, that “[a]nyone who is arrested shall be informed, at the time of arrest, of the reasons for his arrest” and that “[a]nyone arrested or detained on a criminal charge shall be … entitled to trial within a reasonable time or to release”. Although Israel has notified other States parties of its derogation from article 9 due to the existence of a state of emergency, the Human Rights Committee has expressed concern that the derogation limits the effectiveness of judicial review, thus endangering protection of other, non-derogable provisions of the Covenant.73 More recently, in May 2009, the Committee against Torture reiterated its concern that administrative detention as practised by the Government of Israel does not conform to the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, and that it “deprives detainees of basic safeguards including the right to challenge the evidence which is the basis for the detention, warrants are not required, and the detainee may be de facto in incommunicado detention for an extended period, subject to renewal”.74 The Human Rights Committee, in its 69 Ibid. 70 http://www.btselem.org/English/Press_Releases/20090205.asp. 71 IDF Spokesperson’s Office’s letter to B’Tselem, 21 January 2009 and B’Tselem, published at www.btselem.org/English/Administrative_Detention/Statistics.asp. 72 B’Tselem, http://www.btselem.org/english/statistics/Detainees_and_Prisoners.asp and http://www.btselem.org/english/statistics/Minors_in_Custody.asp. This figure does not include those held in IDF facilities. 73 Concluding observations of the Human Rights Committee on the second periodic report of Israel (CCPR/CO/78/ISR), para. 12. In its third periodic report to the Human Rights Committee, submitted in July 2008, the Government of Israel said that a state of emergency may be declared by the Knesset (the Israeli parliament) for a period of one year, a state which has been renewed annually since 1997 (CCPR/C/ISR/3, para. 157), and that the Government and the Knesset are working jointly to complete the needed legislative procedures required to end the state of emergency (ibid., para. 159). 74 Concluding observations of the Committee against Torture on the fourth periodic report of Israel (CAT/C/ISR/CO/4), para. 17.