Khader Adnan, 34, a resident of 'Araba village near Jenin, was arrested on 17 December 2011 and has been held in administrative detention since then. He began his hunger strike the day after he was detained, in protest against his administrative detention and the manner in which he was arrested and interrogated. Now in the 62nd day of his hunger strike, he lies in Ziv hospital in Safad and his medical condition is considered as life-threatening.
Israeli occupying power has increasingly resorted to administrative detention in 2011, with more than 88 Palestinians placed under administrative detention during 2011. Under international humanitarian law, administrative detention may be used only in exceptional cases, as a means of last resort to prevent a danger that cannot be thwarted by less harmful means. Art. 42 of the fourth Geneva Convention of 1949 stated that “the internment or placing in assigned residence of protected persons may be ordered only if the security of the Detaining Power makes it absolutely necessary”. In addition Art. 78 of the convention stated that “If the Occupying Power considers it necessary, for imperative reasons of security, to take safety measures concerning protected persons, it may, at the most, subject them to assigned residence or to internment”.
Israeli occupying power use of administrative detention violates the limitations mentioned in the four Geneva Convention. Israeli occupying power is applying the administrative detention to a vast number of Palestinian Protected civilians and it seems that it turning it into an easy alternative to regular procedures especially when there is no real evidence.
Administrative detention against Palestinian detainees is employed under the heavy veil of secrecy that prevents detainees from establishing a proper defense in court. It is used without a judicial ruling, without indictment, and without a trial. Moreover, the administrative detainee's lawyers are not given access to the evidence which is in full breach of the most basic human rights including the prohibition of arbitrary detention, ensuring a fair trial, the right to freedom and to fair legal procedures, the right to defend one’s self and the right to be declared innocent.
Article 9 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (1966) stipulates that everyone has the right to liberty and security of person and that no one shall be subjected to arbitrary arrest or detention. Article 9 also ensures the right to a fair trial.
The fourth Geneva Convention of 1949 relative to the protection of civilian persons in time of war also underlines the importance of ensuring a fair trial. Thus the misuse of the administrative detention makes it arbitrary that violates articles 71, 72 and 73 of the fourth Geneva Convention which legally applies to the oPt.
PRCS, as a national humanitarian Society guided by international law as well as by the principles of the International Movement of Red Cross and Red Crescent, condemns the misuse of the administrative detention and any arbitrary detention. PRCS calls upon Israeli occupying power to apply the fourth Geneva Convention in the oPt and to put an end to arbitrary detention and to all measures against Palestinian detainees that violate IHL rules.
PRCS considers that Israeli occupying power bears a criminal and a civil responsibility for the current and future condition of detainee Adnan who is a protected person under article 4 of the fourth Geneva Convention.
PRCS calls upon the international community represented by the ICRC, UNSC, UNGA and all States Parties to the Geneva Conventions (1949) to bear their legal responsibilities through actions and to help put an end to Israeli measures that violate IHL rules.
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