A/HRC/23/21 under review, the Government of Israel had in custody some 4,800 Palestinians.16 The Special Rapporteur deeply regrets that Israel continues to ignore problems that he and other United Nations human rights bodies have repeatedly described in official reports relating to the detention of Palestinians.17 The results are Israeli violations on a massive scale. While the Special Rapporteur highlights hereunder cases and issues of concern within the period under review, the following policies and practices remain serious, ongoing concerns: detention without charge and other forms of arbitrary detention, such as Israel’s misuse of administrative detention; torture and other forms of ill, inhumane and humiliating treatment; coerced confessions; solitary confinement, including of children; denial of equality of arms; denial of visits by family members and ICRC; denial of access to legal representation; unacceptable conditions in prisons and detention centres; lack of access to required health care, at times amounting to medical neglect; and denial of access to education, including for children. These concerns are punctuated by Israel’s flagrant disregard of article 76 of the fourth Geneva Convention. 34. Israel’s treatment of Palestinian children in detention continues to alarm. Many of the Special Rapporteur’s concerns in this respect were raised in his report to the General Assembly in September 2011.18 UNICEF recently reminded the international community that Israel’s treatment of Palestinian children routinely violated the Convention on the Rights of the Child and the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment. 19 It concludes that “in no other country are children systematically tried by juvenile military courts that, by definition, fall short of providing the necessary guarantees to ensure respect for their rights.” 20 It also concluded that “the illtreatment of [Palestinian] children who come in contact with the [Israeli] military detention system appears to be widespread, systematic and institutionalized throughout the process, from the moment of arrest until the child’s prosecution and eventual conviction and sentencing.” In a clarifying indication of the extent of the problems, UNICEF pointed out that its conclusions were based, among other things, on 10 years of consistent allegations. Another clarifying indication of the extent of the problems comes by way of one of its recommendations: “Israeli authorities should give immediate consideration to establishing an independent investigation into the reports of ill-treatment of children in the military detention system, in accordance with the 2002 recommendations made by the […] Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights [in the] Palestinian territories occupied since 1967.” More than 10 years of serious violations against Palestinian children remain to be answered for by Israel. It is telling to contrast the treatment that Israel metes out to Palestinian children with the treatment it affords Israeli children, including settlers in Palestine.21 This contrast is one way of comprehending the grossly discriminatory nature of Israel’s occupation. 35. The death of Arafat Jaradat, on 23 February 2013, while in an Israeli facility, constitutes another criminal mark on Israel’s detention regime. While no cause of death was 16 17 18 19 20 21 14 See B’Tselem, Statistics on Palestinians in the custody of the Israeli security forces, at www.btselem.org/statistics/detainees_and_prisoners. See A/66/358, A/66/370, A/67/550, A/HRC/7/17 and A/HRC/20/32. A/66/358. Children in Israeli military detention: observations and recommendations, UNICEF, February 2013. Available from www.unicef.org/oPt/UNICEF_oPt_Children_in_Israeli_Military_Detention_Observations_and_ Recommendations_-_6_March_2013.pdf. Ibid., p. 1. A/67/550, para. 16.