Open Letter to Dr. Edwards on the Suspension of Engagement with the Mandate of the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture
Dear Dr. Alice J. Edwards,
We, the Palestinian human rights organizations and Palestinian Non-governmental Organizations Network (PNGO), write to inform you of our collective decision to suspend all engagement with your mandate as the United Nations (UN) Special Rapporteur on Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment until further notice.
This decision has been made after considerable deliberation and reflects our grave concerns regarding what we perceive as a lack of meaningful action, responsiveness, and impartiality on your part in addressing Israel’s grave, widespread, and systemic human rights violations against Palestinians, including Palestinian prisoners and detainees held in Israeli custody.
As we write, Palestinian prisoners and detainees in Israeli custody are facing widespread and systematic torture and other cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment. Israel is currently holding the largest number of Palestinian prisoners in its history: according to Addameer, from 7 October 2023 until today, more than 12,100 Palestinians were arrested or taken into custody, and the number of Palestinians currently in Israeli detention has more than doubled, increasing from over 5,000 pre-October 2023 to 10,100—not including the thousands of Palestinians abducted from Gaza by Israeli forces and held in ad hoc military detention camps.
Since October 2023, Palestinian organizations have documented and reported a sharp escalation in both the scale and severity of crimes committed against Palestinian prisoners and detainees in every phase of their custody, including during their arrest or abduction, transfer, detention, interrogation, and trial. These documented atrocities encompass various forms of physical and psychological torture, widespread beatings, rape, and other forms of sexual violence, including forced nudity, inhumane detention conditions, starvation, medical negligence, incommunicado detention, detention without charges or trials, prosecution in military courts, and deaths in custody. Since October 7, 2023, at least 49 Palestinians have been reportedly killed or died while in Israeli custody, although we anticipate that the actual number is likely to be higher. These atrocities amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity.
Palestinian organizations have also extensively documented the widespread use of sexual violence as a form of torture against Palestinian prisoners and detainees, and this documentation has been shared with your mandate in a confidential submission on 24 April 2024. Palestinian women have reported being strip-searched by male Israeli officers, photographed in degrading situations, and subjected to threats of rape and sexual assault. Palestinian men have also endured brutal forms of sexual violence, including through the insertion of sticks in their anus. In August 2024, a leaked video showed members of the Israeli military’s Force 100 unit gang-raping a Palestinian male detainee while he was held at the Sde Teiman military camp. Given your prominent role as an expert on sexual violence as a form of torture, it is concerning that you did not co-sign the statements by UN Special Procedures dated 19 February 2024 and 5 August 2024, highlighting its use against Palestinians, including women and girls.
Your latest thematic report to the UN General Assembly focused on sexual torture in July 2024 has heightened our long-standing concerns about your approach to fulfilling the responsibilities of your mandate. In this report, you did not address any information related to the use of sexual violence against Palestinians, despite having received a detailed submission from our organizations as well as a submission from the State of Palestine containing in-depth information on Israel’s widespread use of different forms of sexual torture against Palestinians—including rape, harassment, threats of rape and forced nudity. This report highlights a troubling inconsistency by treating Israeli violations as mere “allegations” while describing crimes against Israelis as substantiated “evidence”. It also inaccurately claims the closure of the Sde Teiman military detention camp. Finally, it takes Israel as an example of good practice in supporting survivors to recover from sexual torture, without any mention of Palestinian detainees, Palestinian victims, and the treatment of Palestinian survivors.
We have closely followed the work of your mandate and made repeated efforts to engage in good faith with you on critical issues. These include an urgent appeal on 11 October 2023, which underscored Israel's total warfare on Gaza’s civilian population, and an urgent appeal on 13 October 2023 highlighting Israel’s targeting and killing of Palestinian journalists in Gaza. On 2 November 2023, we sent an urgent appeal that comprehensively underlined Israel’s escalation of its decades-long, widespread, and systematic attacks against Palestinians in the West Bank since 7 October 2023. This appeal specifically addressed Israel’s mass and violent arrests campaign; the dire detention conditions endured by Palestinians, exacerbated by arbitrary and collective punishment measures; and Israel’s torture and ill-treatment of Palestinian prisoners and detainees. It included the documented torture and ill-treatment of a Palestinian worker from Gaza, threats of rape and murder against a Palestinian child, and the announced deaths of two Palestinian prisoners while in Israeli custody.
On 21 March 2024, we submitted an additional urgent appeal whose main focus was on arbitrary arrests, enforced disappearance, inhumane treatment, and torture of Palestinians by Israeli forces and authorities. Lastly, on 24 April 2024, we submitted a detailed, confidential report on sexual torture, providing evidence of its use as a form of abuse in Israeli detention centers. Following this, we requested an online meeting with you on 25 April 2024 to discuss the submission and the broader situation of Palestinians in Israeli custody. Despite a follow-up request on 7 May 2024, we received no response.
The detailed and evidence-based submissions and urgent appeals repeatedly made by Palestinian human rights organizations to your mandate have not been met with adequate acknowledgment, investigation, or intervention. This has raised significant concerns about the level of attention and urgency afforded to Israel’s extensively documented use of torture and violations of international law, particularly in light of their severity and entrenched nature.
Over a year into Israel’s ongoing genocide against Palestinians, you have issued only two standalone statements (on 23 May 2024 and 16 August 2024), led one joint statement (8 January 2024), and signed three others led by fellow Special Rapporteurs (on 12 October 2023, 27 November 2023, and 7 March 2024) regarding Palestine and Israel. Since you were appointed Special Rapporteur in August 2022, you have sent just one communication to Israel on 16 May 2024—over seven months into the ongoing Gaza genocide—while a similar communication to the State of Palestine took less than three months after 7 October 2023. By comparison, your predecessor sent four communications to Israel in 2021 alone, highlighting the critical situation that predated your tenure.
Not only are we concerned about the small number of statements you signed or led, but we are equally troubled by the critical statements falling within your mandate that you did not sign. In addition to the two statements mentioned above (19 February 2024 and 5 August 2024), and despite having conducted a thematic study on weapons used for torture, you did not endorse the 23 February 2024 statement calling for an arms embargo on Israel. You also chose not to endorse the 1 February 2024 statement addressing Israel’s persecution of Palestinian journalists in Gaza, including detention. These choices suggest a selective approach to the exercise of your mandate.
Your approach, analysis, and rhetoric raise serious concerns about impartiality and objectivity and contribute to the dehumanization of Palestinians. In your 23 May 2024 statement, you described Israel’s torture of Palestinians as an “emerging pattern,” disregarding its systematic and decades-long nature. Instead of condemning these crimes, you called for Israel to investigate itself—despite Israel's well-documented unwillingness to investigate and prosecute acts of torture committed against Palestinians.
Your choice to focus your upcoming report to the Human Rights Council on hostage-taking as a form of torture is yet another example of a troubling pattern that suggests you perceive Palestinians as less worthy victims. The decision to center this theme—rather than addressing the mass arrests and ongoing and systematic torture and dehumanization of Palestinians, including through the use of administrative detention or the Unlawful Combatants Law—represents yet another instance of disregarding their plight and omitting the grave realities of their suffering, thereby further marginalizing their experiences and undermining their dignity.
We deeply respect the mandate of the Special Rapporteur on Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment in combating torture worldwide and upholding human dignity, and have engaged in good faith with you as well as with your predecessors in the pursuit of these shared objectives. However, we cannot continue to engage in a process that fails to center the lived realities of Palestinians and to actively challenge impunity for perpetrators. Our suspension of engagement will remain in effect until there is a change in leadership or a demonstrable shift in your approach to one that is fair, impartial, and genuinely responsive to the evidence and realities on the ground. We will continue our engagement with other accountability mechanisms to pursue justice for Palestinian victims of torture - including the International Criminal Court, the UN Commission of Inquiry, the Working Groups on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances and Arbitrary Detention, and other relevant bodies.
Dr. Edwards, we urge you to uphold the principles of impartiality and universality and engage meaningfully with the lived realities of Palestinians. Until there is demonstrable evidence of a shift toward accountability, transparency, non-discrimination, meaningful engagement with Palestinian Civil Society Organizations, and non-discriminatory and victim-centered approaches, we cannot, in good conscience, continue to engage with a mandate that neglects to address the lived realities of thousands of Palestinians in Israeli custody.
Signed:
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Palestinian Human Rights Organizations Council:
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Al-Haq
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Addameer Prisoners Support and Human Rights Association
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Al Mezan Center for Human Rights
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The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights
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Hurryyat- Center for Defence of Civil Liberties and Human Rights
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Jerusalem Center for Legal Aid and Human Rights
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Aldameer Association for Human Rights
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Defence for Children International – Palestine
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Muwatin Institute for Democracy and Human Rights (Observer)
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Independent Commission for Human Rights (Observer)
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Treatment and Rehabilitation Centre for Victims of Torture (TRC).
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Women’s Centre for Legal Aid and Counselling (WCLAC).
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The Civic Coalition for Human Right in Jerusalem.
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The Community Action Center at Al-Quds University.
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MIFTAH
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The Bisan Center for Research and Development.
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Palestinian Non-governmental Organizations Network (PNGO) 132 members.