Carol Bellamy called on Israeli authorities "to comply with the international norms that are in place for purposes of detention of young people."
UNICEF slams detention of Palestinian teens
By ASSOCIATED PRESS
Israel should uphold international standards on the detention of children and ease travel restrictions that prevent thousands of Palestinian youths from getting an education, the head of the United Nations children's fund said Saturday at the start of a Middle East visit.
Human rights groups have raised concerns about the treatment of several hundred Palestinian teens held in Israeli detention centers and prisons, and UNICEF has called for the abolition of "administrative detention" - without charge or trial - for minors.
UNICEF executive director Carol Bellamy called on Israeli authorities "to comply with the international norms that are in place for purposes of detention of young people."
"While security is an issue, let's make sure you carry out security in a way that is not so devastating on people, that it doesn't prevent children from getting an education," she added.
Bellamy is on a three-day visit to Israel and the Palestinian territories, her first since being named UNICEF chief in 1995. Several planned visits have been scrapped for security reasons.
UNICEF says at least 573 Palestinians under 18 and 104 children on the Israeli side have been killed in violence that erupted in Sept. 2000. It has repeatedly called on both sides to do more to protect children from violence.
Decisions of adults in the region are "creating an environment for violence that will affect the children for years to come," Bellamy said.
While Israeli and Palestinian children are both affected by violence, "there is a special impact ... on some of the Palestinian children - the struggles to get to school, the barriers, the diversions, the checkpoints, the impact we've seen in terms of getting some of the vaccines in for children for simple immunization," Bellamy said.
Bellamy plans to visit UNICEF education projects in the Gaza Strip, view Israel's West Bank security fence near Jerusalem and meet Israeli and Palestinian schoolchildren who have lost relatives in the violence.
She is also due to meet senior officials, including Palestinian premier Ahmed Qurei and Israel's deputy prime minister, Ehud Olmert.
The U.N. said Bellamy would raise "access problems" with Israeli officials, including checkpoints, curfews and other obstacles to Palestinian movement and barriers to UNICEF staff reaching the worst-affected areas.
Palestinian officials will be urged to put more resources into education and child protection.
"The majority of the population in this region is young," Bellamy said. "We have the choice to invest in young people or to ignore young people. So my message will be to all, to Israelis and Palestinians: invest."
