Universal Periodic Review 29: Israel
This UK statement was delivered during the 29th session of the Universal Period Review during the discussion of Israel's Human Rights Record on 23 January 2018.
The Universal Periodic Review takes place at the Palais des Nations in Geneva
The UK welcomes Israel’s participation in the UPR and notes the positive steps taken since its last review, including Israel’s commitment in 2015 to eradicate forced labour, modern slavery and human trafficking; and the progress Israel has made on gender equality.
The UK remains concerned about children in detention in Israel. The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, to which Israel is a State Party, clearly sets out the need to grant special care and protection to children.
The UK recommends:
1) Taking action to protect child detainees, ensuring the mandatory use of audio-visual recording in interrogations with all child detainees, ending the use of painful restraints, and consistently fully informing detainees of their legal rights.
2) Taking immediate action to reverse policy on settlement expansion in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, which is illegal under international humanitarian law.
3) Taking immediate action to cease the policy of demolitions of Palestinian properties and buildings, and provide a clearly defined and transparent process for construction of properties and buildings for Palestinians in Area C of the West Bank and in East Jerusalem, in the Occupied Palestinian Territories.