"Coming Home"- Watch a film about the project
The Post-trauma Rehabilitation of Palestinian Ex-detainee Children in the West Bank Programme, aims at facilitating the re-integration process of ex-detainee children into their communities by enhancing the psychosocial well being and coping capacity of ex-detainee children, and their families through in depth counseling and school and community based re-integration interventions. The project is implemented by the East Jerusalem YMCA Rehabilitation Programme in partnership with Save the Children Sweden, and funded by the European Commission Humanitarian Aid and Civil Protection department (ECHO). Based on information from Defence for Children International – Palestine Section (DCI-PS), 700 Palestinian children have been detained by the Israeli authorities every year since the beginning of 2000. Over the past 10 years, about 7000 children have been detained. Most children are charged with throwing stones under Israeli Military Orders, which have been ruling the occupied Palestinian territory since 1967. According to those Military Orders (specifically, Military Order 132), Palestinian children can be subject to detention when they are as young as 12 years old.
According to the Convention of the Rights of the Child (hereinafter CRC), any state, as State Party, should apply detention of children only as a measure of last resort and for the shortest appropriate period of time. The Palestinian population is subjected to military control under a set of over 1,500 Israeli Military Orders, which rule all aspects of Palestinian life. Consequently, Palestinians above 12 years of age can get arrested, interrogated, detained, sentenced and imprisoned any time that they act in violation of a Military Order, resulting in the above mentioned alarming prevalence of child imprisonment.
The experience of detention involves continuous physical and psychological violence including torture, deplorable conditions of detention, trials usually carried out with no respect for acknowledged principles of due process of law, and long periods of absence from the family and community support. The traumatic experience of imprisonment affects the psychosocial well-being of children negatively and is manifested in the development of different levels of psychosocial difficulties by the majority of child ex-detainees.
Since 2008, the Post-Trauma Rehabilitation of Palestinian ex-detainee children in the West Bank Programme has been facilitating the re-integration process of child ex-detainees into their communities. Approximately 350 children benefit annually from individual and group counseling sessions, remedial education and structured ventilation activity weekends. In January 2010 a new component was added to the project which is providing vocational training for more than 150 child ex-detainees. A number of the ex-detainee children receive legal support in the Israeli Military courts during their period of detention through Defence for Children International – Palestine Section (DCI-PS). SCS supports DCI-PS to provide legal support for 120 children annually.
In a report, entitled One Day in Prison Feels like a Year - Palestinian Children tell their own stories (available here in English and Arabic), Palestinian children from the West Bank talk about the rights violations they were subjected to in Israeli prisons, in addition to how they view their future.
Animated films created by ex-detainee children:
These short animated films were made by ex-detainee children as part of an "Animate-it". Through the workshop the children learnt how to use and create animations to discuss their concerns, report on their situation and educate other children and adults about issues important to their lives. The Animate-it method is based on ensuring that the rights of the child are heard, and aims at providing children with a space to discuss and advocate for their rights. 10 children took part in the workshop. The children were fully responsible for making all parts of the film.
The following films were produced in July 2011:
In this animation a group of 8 ex-detainee children explore the various rights violations faced by children in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including the lack of space to play in refugee camps, and the conditions children are subjected to when arrested and detained in Israeli prisons.
In this animation a group of 5 ex-detainee children are advocating for their right to live in a safe environment, to freedom of movement and to education.
The films below were produced in October 2010:
Mohammad is arrested by the Israeil army while playing with his friends. Upon his release he feels isolated and lonely. At first he is unable to go back to school but with the support of his friends and the community he manages to return to his studies. The children are calling for the community to support ex-detainee children in returning back to their education and normal lives upon their release from prison.
Ammar is a Palestinian boy who was playing with his friends when he was shot in the leg by an Israeli soldier. Unfortunately the ambulance could not reach him on time due to a closure and as a result he was disabled and confined to a wheelchair. He was then unable to return to school because of the lack of wheelchair access. This animation is based on a true story and the participants are calling for their right to live safely and for disabled children to have their right to education.
Detention: Your Rights - West Bank and East Jerusalem - May 2012
This booklet summarises young people's rights in accordance with international conventions so that they can be aware of what their rights are prior, during and after arrest. The booklet also contains information on what parents can do should their child get arrested. Download the booklet in English and in Arabic.