A/HRC/40/39 civilians by military courts. On 6 June 2018, the President of the State of Palestine signed an instrument of accession to the Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, aiming at the abolition of the death penalty. While this is an important step towards the abolition of the death penalty in the State of Palestine, further steps are required for accession to be given full effect. Detention, torture and ill-treatment and violations of the right to a fair trial 54. There were concerns of arbitrary detention by Palestinian authorities in the West Bank and Gaza. Journalists, activists and political opponents were arrested by authorities in both areas for exercising their fundamental freedoms. In September 2018, a wave of political arrests took place throughout the Occupied Palestinian Territory, with the arrest or summons for interrogation of 50 Fatah affiliates in Gaza, followed by the arrests of over 100 Hamas affiliates in the West Bank, in a coordinated overnight arrest operation. 55. Other Palestinians reported being arrested without legal basis, with some spending weeks and, in some cases, months without being formally charged or having their case reviewed by a competent court. Some stated they had been denied procedural guarantees, including the rights to access legal counsel and to contact family. In other reported cases the presumed or actual sexual orientation of the individual could have been a reason for arbitrary arrest. While homosexuality is not criminalized in the West Bank, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex individuals reported being subjected to arrests and accused of crimes related to collaboration, morality, public indecency or drugs, while being questioned about their sexuality or asked to reveal names of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex individuals before being released without charges. In at least one case, a lawyer claimed having been harassed by the security forces for taking up such a case. 56. Many of those arrested in the West Bank were held in administrative detention based on orders by governors. 64 Between 1 November 2017 and 30 September 2018, the Independent Commission for Human Rights recorded 173 cases of administrative detention based on such orders, a sharp increase above the 99 cases recorded between 1 November 2016 and 31 October 2017. In some cases, individuals were detained for months without any apparent intention by the authorities to charge them and without a judicial review. In other cases, pretrial detainees released by the court for lack of evidence were immediately rearrested on a governor’s orders. This form of administrative detention appeared to be used as an alternative to criminal proceedings, when evidence was lacking, which would constitute arbitrary deprivation of liberty.65 57. In Gaza, arbitrary arrests and detention also remained a concern, 66 as illustrated by an incident in January 2018, when eight children were among those detained by the internal security agency, which is tasked with maintaining security in Gaza, including in relation to alleged collaborators with Israel and dissident political groups. Several of those arrested were reportedly affiliated with Fatah, Salafist groups or other Islamic factions, raising concerns that some of them were detained solely on the basis of their political affiliation. Many of the detainees held under the custody of internal security agency spent significant time, in some cases two or three months, without access to legal aid or family. 58. In both Gaza and the West Bank, detainees continued to report ill-treatment, and in some cases torture, during interrogation, raising strong concerns of extraction of confession under duress. In the West Bank, there was a growing concern over treatment in some detention facilities, particularly over credible allegations of ill-treatment. 67 Forty-nine detainees interviewed by OHCHR reported having been subjected to some form of illtreatment; several of the incidents described were of such gravity that they may amount to 64 65 66 67 12 See also A/HRC/37/42, paras. 24–26. See also A/HRC/34/38, para. 54, A/HRC/34/36, paras. 55–58 and 70–74, A/HRC/31/44, para. 78, and A/HRC/31/40, paras. 56–58 and 69–70. See also A/HRC/37/42, paras. 59–60. OHCHR also observed conditions of detention that were very poor, unhygienic and inhumane, including overcrowded cells without proper ventilation and lighting, as well as detainees held in solitary confinement for prolonged periods.