Abstract

The United Nation’s Convention on the Rights of the Child (“CRC”) is the most rapidly and widely ratified human rights treaty in history. Nonetheless, because the CRC lacks an effective enforcement mechanism that binds State Parties to their commitments, the substantive impact of the CRC remains limited. This note illustrates the ineffectiveness of the CRC through a case study on one aspect of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict—the Israeli detention of Palestinian children. Through their military court system, the Israeli military has detained over 50,000 Palestinian children since Israel’s occupation began in 1967. The Israeli military’s inhumane treatment of these detained youths violates the CRC’s provisions relating to juvenile justice. Not only does the CRC fail to effectively protect child offenders living in Occupied Palestinian Territory, it also fails to hold Israel accountable for its violations. However, if the United Nations provided an accurate assessment of treaty violations in signatory states and encouraged enforcement via financial incentive, the lives of Palestinian children impacted by decades of military occupation might finally improve.

Keywords: rights of the child, human rights, treaty, CRC, enforcement, israeli-palestinian conflict, military court, children