Baroness Tonge – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Tonge on 2016-02-01.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what discussions they have had with the government of Israel regarding its use of administrative detention.

Baroness Anelay of St Johns

We remain concerned about Israel’s extensive use of administrative detention which, according to international law, should only be used when security makes this absolutely necessary rather than as routine practice, and as a preventative rather than a punitive measure. We continue to call on the Israeli authorities to comply with their obligations under international law and either charge or release detainees. We have raised these concerns with the Israeli authorities on many occasions, including at Foreign Minister, Attorney General and National Security Adviser levels. Officials from our Embassy in Tel Aviv most recently raised the matter of the use of administrative detention on 3 November 2015 with Israeli officials from the Ministry of Justice, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Office of the Deputy Attorney General.