text: SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
  
      This Act may be cited as the ``Promoting Human Rights by Ending 
  Israeli Military Detention of Palestinian Children Act''.
  
  SEC. 2. FINDINGS.
  
      Congress finds the following:
              (1) Israel ratified the Convention on the Rights of the 
          Child on October 3, 1991, which states--
                      (A) in article 37(a), that ``no child shall be 
                  subject to torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading 
                  treatment or punishment'';
                      (B) in article 37(b), that the arrest, detention or 
                  imprisonment of a child ``shall be used only as a 
                  measure of last resort and for the shortest appropriate 
                  period of time'';
                      (C) in article 37(c), that ``every child deprived 
                  of liberty shall be treated with humanity and respect 
                  for the inherent dignity of the human person, and in a 
                  manner which takes into account the needs of persons of 
                  his or her age''; and
                      (D) in article 37(d), that ``[e]very 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''.
              (2) In the Israeli-occupied West Bank, there are two 
          separate legal systems, with Israeli military law imposed on 
          Palestinians and Israeli civilian law applied to Israeli 
          settlers.
              (3) The Israeli military detains around 500 to 700 
          Palestinian children between the ages of 12 and 17 each year 
          and prosecutes them before a military court system that lacks 
          basic and fundamental guarantees of due process in violation of 
          international standards.
              (4) Approximately 2,700,000 Palestinians live in the West 
          Bank, of which around 47 percent are children under the age of 
          18, who live under military occupation, the constant fear of 
          arrest, detention, and violence by the Israeli military, and 
          the threat of recruitment by armed groups.
              (5) Since 2000, an estimated 10,000 Palestinian children 
          have been detained by Israeli security forces in the West Bank 
          and prosecuted in the Israeli military court system.
              (6) Children under the age of 12 cannot be prosecuted in 
          Israeli military courts. However, Israeli military forces 
          detain children under the age of 12 and question them, for 
          several hours, before releasing them to their families or to 
          Palestinian authorities.
              (7) Human Rights Watch documented, in a July 2015 report 
          titled ``Israel: Security Forces Abuse Palestinian Children'', 
          that such detentions also included the use of chokeholds, 
          beatings, and coercive interrogation on children between the 
          ages of 11 and 15 years.
              (8) The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) concluded, 
          in a February 2013 report titled ``Children in Israeli Military 
          Detention'', that the ``ill-treatment of children who come in 
          contact with the military detention system appears to be 
          widespread, systematic and institutionalized throughout the 
          process, from the moment of arrest until the child's 
          prosecution and eventual conviction and sentencing''.
              (9) The 2013 UNICEF report further determines that the 
          Israeli system of military detention of Palestinian children 
          profoundly deviates from international norms, stating that ``in 
          no other country are children systematically tried by juvenile 
          military courts that, by definition, fall short of providing 
          the necessary guarantees to ensure respect for their rights''.
              (10) UNICEF also released reports in October 2013 and 
          February 2015 noting that Israeli authorities have, since March 
          2013, issued new military orders and taken steps to reinforce 
          existing military and police standard operating procedures 
          relating to the detention of Palestinian children. However, the 
          reports still found continued and persistent evidence of ill-
          treatment of Palestinian children detained by Israeli forces.
              (11) In 2013, the annual Country Report on Human Rights 
          Practices for Israel and the Occupied Territories (``Annual 
          Report'') published by the Department of State noted that 
          Israeli security services continued to abuse, and in some cases 
          torture minors, frequently arrested on suspicion of stone-
          throwing, in order to coerce confessions. The torture tactics 
          used included threats, intimidation, long-term handcuffing, 
          beatings, and solitary confinement.
              (12) The 2013 Annual Report also stated that ``signed 
          confessions by Palestinian minors, written in Hebrew, a 
          language most could not read, continued to be used as evidence 
          against them in Israeli military courts''.
              (13) The 2016 Annual Report noted a ``significant increase 
          in detentions of minors'' in 2016, and that ``Israeli 
          authorities continued to use confessions signed by Palestinian 
          minors, written in Hebrew.'' It also highlighted the renewed 
          use of ``administrative detention'' against Palestinians, 
          including children, a practice in which a detainee may be held 
          indefinitely, without charge or trial, by the order of a 
          military commander or other government official.
              (14) The nongovernmental organization Defense for Children 
          International Palestine collected affidavits from 429 West Bank 
          children who were detained between 2012 and 2015, and concluded 
          that--
                      (A) three-quarters of the children endured physical 
                  violence following arrest;
                      (B) under Israeli military law, children do not 
                  have the right to a lawyer during interrogation;
                      (C) 97 percent of the children did not have a 
                  parent present during their interrogation;
                      (D) 84 percent of the children were not properly 
                  informed of their rights by Israeli police;
                      (E) interrogators used stress positions, threats of 
                  violence, and isolation to coerce confessions from 
                  detained children; and
                      (F) 66 children were held in pre-trial, pre-charge 
                  isolation for interrogation purposes for an average 
                  period of 13 days.
              (15) Amendments to Israeli military law concerning the 
          detention of Palestinian children have had little to no impact 
          on the treatment of children during the first 24 to 48 hours 
          after an arrest, when the majority of their ill-treatment 
          occurs.
              (16) In 2002, the United Nations Committee on the Rights of 
          the Child, which monitors implementation of the Convention on 
          the Rights of the Child, reviewed Israel's compliance with the 
          Convention and expressed serious concern regarding 
          ``allegations and complaints of inhuman or degrading practices 
          and of torture and ill-treatment of Palestinian children'' 
          during arrest, interrogation, and detention.
              (17) In 2013, the Committee declared that Palestinian 
          children arrested by Israeli forces ``continue to be 
          systematically subject to degrading treatment, and often to 
          acts of torture'' and that Israel had ``fully disregarded'' the 
          previous recommendations of the Committee to comply with 
          international law.
  
  SEC. 3. PURPOSE.
  
      The purpose of this Act is to promote and protect the human rights 
  of Palestinian children and to ensure that United States taxpayer funds 
  shall not be used to support the military detention of Palestinian 
  children.
  
  SEC. 4. SENSE OF CONGRESS.
  
      It is the sense of Congress that the detention and prosecution of 
  Palestinian children in a military court system by the Government of 
  Israel--
              (1) violates international law and internationally 
          recognized standards of human rights;
              (2) is contrary to the values of the American people and 
          the efforts of the United States to support equality, human 
          rights, and dignity for both Palestinians and Israelis;
              (3) undermines efforts by the United States to achieve a 
          just and lasting peace between Israel and the Palestinians; and
              (4) should be terminated and replaced with a juvenile 
          justice system in which Israeli authorities do not discriminate 
          between the treatment of Israeli and Palestinian children and 
          that adheres to internationally recognized standards of human 
          rights and obligations.
  
  SEC. 5. STATEMENT OF POLICY.
  
      It is the policy of the United States not to support the military 
  detention of Palestinian children, a practice that results in 
  widespread and systematic human rights violations against Palestinian 
  child detainees and is inconsistent with the values of the United 
  States.
  
  SEC. 6. PROHIBITION ON UNITED STATES FUNDS TO SUPPORT MILITARY 
                DETENTION OF PALESTINIAN CHILDREN.
  
      (a) Prohibition.--Notwithstanding any other provision of law, none 
  of the funds authorized to be appropriated for assistance to Israel may 
  be used to support the military detention, interrogation, abuse, or 
  ill-treatment of Palestinian children in violation of international 
  humanitarian law or to support the use against Palestinian children of 
  any of the following practices:
              (1) Torture or cruel, inhumane, or degrading treatment.
              (2) Physical violence, including restraint in stress 
          positions.
              (3) Hooding, sensory deprivation, death threats, or other 
          forms of psychological abuse.
              (4) Incommunicado detention or solitary confinement.
              (5) Administrative detention, as described in section 
          2(13).
              (6) Denial of access to parents or legal counsel during 
          interrogations.
              (7) Confessions obtained by force or coercion.
      (b) Certification.--Not later than October 15, 2018, and annually 
  thereafter, the Secretary of State shall submit to the Committee on 
  Appropriations of the House of Representatives and the Committee on 
  Appropriations of the Senate--
              (1) a certification that none of the funds obligated or 
          expended in the previous fiscal year for assistance to the 
          Government of Israel have been used by such Government to 
          support personnel, training, lethal materials, equipment, 
          facilities, logistics, transportation or any other activity 
          that supports or is associated with any of the activities 
          prohibited under subsection (a); or
              (2) if the Secretary cannot make such a certification, a 
          report describing in detail the amount of such funds used by 
          the Government of Israel in violation of subsection (a) and 
          each activity supported by such funds.
      (c) Additional Matter in Existing Reports.--The Secretary of State 
  shall include, in each report required under section 116 of the Foreign 
  Assistance Act of 1961 (22 U.S.C. 2151n), a description of the nature 
  and extent of detention, interrogation, abuse, or ill-treatment of 
  Palestinian children by Israeli military forces or police in violation 
  of international humanitarian law.
target: Promoting Human Rights by Ending Israeli Military Detention of Palestinian Children Act This bill prohibits U.S. assistance to Israel from being used to support the military detention, interrogation, or ill-treatment of Palestinian children in violation of international humanitarian law or the use against Palestinian children of: (1) torture, inhumane, or degrading treatment; (2) physical violence or psychological abuse; (3) incommunicado or administrative detention; (4) solitary confinement; (5) denial of parental or legal access during interrogations; or (6) force or coercion to obtain a confession.  The Department of State shall annually submit to Congress: (1) a certification that none of the funds obligated or expended in the previous fiscal year for assistance to Israel have been used to support any of such activities; or (2) if the State Department cannot make such certification, a report describing each activity and the amount of funds used by Israel in violation of this bill. The State Department shall include in each annual report on the barring of development assistance to a country that engages in human rights violations a description of the nature and extent of detention, interrogation, or ill-treatment of Palestinian children by Israeli military forces or police in violation of international humanitarian law.
feat_title: Promoting Human Rights by Ending Israeli Military Detention of Palestinian Children Act