UN Bodies Call For Release of Sick Palestinian Teen Held under ‘Israeli’ Administrative Detention
By Staff, Agencies
A number of the United Nations agencies have called upon the Zionist occupation regime to immediately release a Palestinian teenager with a rare neuromuscular disorder, who has been held without charge for a year in what authorities refer to as administrative detention.
The United Nations Children's Fund [UNICEF], the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East [UNRWA] and the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights [OHCHR] said in a joint statement on Thursday that neither Amal Nakhleh, who was detained in January 2021 and turned 18 this week, nor his lawyers and family have been informed of the reasons for his arrest and detention.
“Amal suffers from a severe autoimmune disease that requires continuous medical treatment and monitoring,” the UN agencies said, calling for his “immediate and unconditional release from detention in line with international human rights law.”
“According to the Convention on the Rights of the Child, every child deprived of his or her liberty shall have the right to prompt access to legal and other appropriate assistance, as well as the right to challenge the legality of the deprivation of his or her liberty before a court or other competent, independent, and impartial authority, and to a prompt decision on any such action,” the statement underscored.
“Amal’s case is one of the more prolonged cases where a Palestinian child has been detained without charge or trial. It is, however, not an isolated case. Currently, at least another three Palestinians are in administrative detention who were under the age of 18 when first detained,” the UN bodies pointed out.
“We echo the calls of the UN Secretary-General [Antonio Guterres], who in his annual reports regarding the impact of armed conflict on children, urges the apartheid entity to end the administrative detention of children. This practice deprives children of their liberty and must immediately end,” the statement said.
On Tuesday, the European Union Delegation to the Palestinians [DPAL] called on Zionist officials to cease the imprisonment without charge or trial of the chronically-ill Palestinian teenager.
‘Israeli’ occupation forces first arrested Nakhleh in the occupied West Bank back in November 2020.
His family said Amal was out with friends at the time after he had undergone surgery to remove a cancerous mass. The teen suffers from myasthenia gravis – a rare neuromuscular disease.
Nakhleh was accused of throwing stones at ‘Israeli’ occupation soldiers, and was held for 40 days.
In January last year, the ill Palestinian teen was re-arrested and placed in administrative detention, which has now been renewed again.
Neither Amal nor his family are aware of the charges against him and have been informed by the Zionist authorities that it is a “confidential administrative case.”
Amal’s severe autoimmune disease requires continuous medical treatment and monitoring. Due to his health conditions, he cannot be vaccinated against COVID-19 and must take immune-suppressants, meaning that his life is at high risk if he contracts the coronavirus.
There are reportedly more than 7,000 Palestinians held at ‘Israeli’ occupation jails. Hundreds of the inmates have been apparently incarcerated under the practice of the so-called administrative detention.
