Previous PageTable Of ContentsNext Page

Recent Reports 
 Support HRW
About HRW
Site Map

Human Rights Watch - Home Page

II. RECOMMENDATIONS

To the Government of Israel

Issue clear directives to all Israeli military and intelligence forces operating in the occupied zone of south Lebanon - including Israel's South Lebanon Army (SLA) auxiliary - to refrain immediately from taking actions that directly or indirectly effect, authorize, or facilitate expulsions of civilian residents from the zone, actions that constitute grave breaches of the Fourth Geneva Convention.

Publicly announce that Lebanese civilians will no longer be expelled from villages and towns in the zone, and that those who have been expelled are free to return and recover their property under safe conditions, free of any form of coercion or intimidation from occupation security authorities.

Permit independent international monitors to escort expelled families and individuals from South Lebanon Army crossing points to their homes.

Allow independent international monitors unimpeded and continuing access to all residents who return, in order to ensure that any coercion or intimidation can be documented and reported to occupation authorities and the international community in a timely and effective manner.

Permit representatives of human rights organizations based in Israel and elsewhere access to the occupied zone to carry out investigations of violations of international humanitarian and human rights law.

Publicly commit to holding fully accountable any person - Lebanese or Israeli - who uses the authority established by Israel's occupation of south Lebanon, to coerce, intimidate, or detain arbitrarily any civilian resident of the occupied zone, or to impose collective punishment on any family.

Revise restrictions on the freedom of movement of residents of the occupied zone to ensure that exit from and entry to the zone is not denied in an arbitrary fashion.

Develop transparent administrative mechanisms that will enable all residents to appeal any decision that affects their freedom of movement.

Investigate forced conscription of Lebanese adults and children by the SLA, and bring this practice to an immediate halt.

Take all appropriate measures to prevent the recruitment of children under the age of eighteen into the South Lebanon Army, and in line with an emerging international consensus, publicly declare support for a minimum age of eighteen for both recruitment and participation in armed conflict.

Ratify without delay the new ILO Convention Concerning the Prohibition and Immediate Elimination of the Worst Forms of Child Labor, and in accordance with its provisions and apply the relevant penalsanctions to any individual who forcibly recruits children under the age of eighteen for use in armed conflict.

Immediately end the practice of torutre or ill-treatment of detainees, whether by members of the Israeli security services or by members of the SLA. Investigate past and present reports of torture or ill-treatment and bring the perpetrators to justice.

Amend domestic law to be consistent with the absolute prohibition of torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, including by adopting a definition of torture consistent with international law.

Ensure representatives of human rights organizations based in Israel and elsewhere have access to all prisons and detention centers in Israel and the territories Israel occupies where Lebanese civilians are held

To the States that comprise the five-nation Israel Lebanon Monitoring Group
(U.S., France, Syria, Lebanon, and Israel)

Condemn the targeting of Lebanese civilians for expulsion from the occupied zone, which is a grave breach of the Geneva Convestions.

Monitor the expulsion of civilians from the occupied zone.

Take steps to press Israel to halt the recruitment of child soldiers for its local auxiliary occupation forces.

To the U.N. Secretary-General

Provide detailed information about cases of expulsion of Lebanese civilians from the occupied zone in the reports submitted every six months to the U.N. Security Council on the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL).

To the United States and Member States of the European Union

Publicly condemn the expulsion of civilians from occupied Lebanon as a clear violation of international humanitarian law, and a war crime.

Urge the government of Israel to cease actions in south Lebanon that directly or indirectly sanction the expulsion of any civilian residents, and to adopt the other recommendations made in this report.

Instruct diplomats at the U.S. and European embassies in Lebanon to visit families and individuals who are expelled, and express concern publicly about their cases.

Condition financial assistance and other forms of aid to Israeli to an end to the practice of civilian expulsions from the occupied zone in south Lebanon.

Raise the issue of civilian expulsions in the occupied zone of South Lebanon as a matter of grave concern in high-level meetings with Israeli counterparts, such as trade and defense-related missions.

Urge members of Congress and parliamentarians to raise the issue of expulsions in meetings with Israeli government officials and members of the Knesset.

To the High Contracting Parties of the Geneva Convention

Search for persons alleged to have committed, or to have ordered to be committed, the expulsion of Lebanese residents of the occupied zone, and bring such persons, regardless of their nationality, before your own courts.

Take measures necessary for the suppression of all other acts in occupied south Lebanon that are contrary to the provisions of the Fourth Geneva Convention.

To the Government of Lebanon

Maintain complete and detailed files about expulsions of families and individuals from the occupied zone, and make such information available to the international community.

Instruct the Council of the South to institute fully transparent procedures with respect to the process that it uses to provide humanitarian assistance to expelled families and individuals, and ensure that such assistance is provided in a timely manner.

Investigate complaints about the operations of the Council of the South to ensure that all families and individuals entitled to humanitarian assistance received such assistance, and in the proper amount.

Create a transparent mechanism within the Council of Ministers to ensure that there is effective government oversight of the operations of the Council of the South.

Previous PageTable Of ContentsNext Page