The Palestinian Center for Prisoners Advocacy strongly condemns the report issued by the UN Committee Against Torture (C.A.T.) regarding its concluding observations on Israel’s sixth periodic report. The Committee has demonstrated blatant bias in favor of the Israeli occupation at the expense of thousands of Palestinian prisoners and detainees held in Israeli prisons. The report comes at a time when all observers are documenting horrific and unprecedented abuses—marked by extreme fascism and unmatched cruelty—committed against Palestinian prisoners, including female detainees. The shocking figures from the past year, including prisoners who were killed and liquidated in cold blood inside prisons amid the occupation’s horrifying crimes, stand as irrefutable evidence of systematic wrongdoing. Furthermore, the bodies of many martyrs remain withheld to this day—either buried in the “cemeteries of numbers” or stored in prison and detention center morgues—constituting undeniable proof of the crimes committed against them. Such evidence should have compelled the members of the Committee to side with humanity, justice, and the oppressed. Instead, it appears that political calculations continue to overshadow Palestinian blood and the suffering of Palestinian prisoners and detainees.
The report adopted contradictory and misleading language. While it highlighted what it described as “positive aspects” attributed to Israel, it completely disregarded Palestinian prisoners, focusing instead on Israel’s internal matters. The Center notes numerous violations and inconsistencies reflected in the report, whose duplicitous language revealed the scandal of its authorship. At times, the Committee’s wording came dangerously close to equating the oppressor with the victim. We cite here a passage from the report’s introduction:
“The Committee expresses its condolences to the State party for the lives lost and the permanent physical and psychological injuries caused by the attack carried out by Hamas and other groups on 7 October 2023, which the Committee condemns unequivocally, while referring to its deep concern over the disproportionate response of Israel, which has resulted in immense human loss and profound suffering for the Palestinian people.”
The opening of the report constituted a clear expression of sympathy toward the Israeli occupation, as though everything that follows—its violations, crimes, and grave abuses—is nothing more than a reaction.
The Palestinian Center for Prisoners Advocacy, having closely monitored the details of this absurd spectacle unfolding within UN corridors—through a committee once expected to be among the most significant human rights bodies in the world—affirms that the Committee has chosen a path that blatantly undermines all established humanitarian and legal norms.
Humanity as a whole faces a real danger in light of this conduct, which appears to have become a guiding principle governing the Committee’s work. In this context, we call upon the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Mr. Volker Türk, to review the work of the Committee Against Torture and verify the independence of its members, whose loyalties now clearly serve the political interests of their states and institutions.
Human rights do not lapse with time, nor do they disappear through manipulation or attempts to distort legal texts, nor by hiding behind vague expressions that allow perpetrators to evade accountability. Upholding humanity and international justice requires the United Nations to correct this course and urgently and decisively pull the Committee away from the dangerous path into which it has fallen—without delay or hesitation.
Palestinian Center for Prisoners Advocacy
Sunday, 30 November 2025
