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Rights groups Freedom From Torture and Redress wrote a letter to British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak raising concerns over reports that the decision to suspend funding for UNRWA was based on evidence gained by torturing Palestinians.
The groups urged Sunak, in an open letter sent on Friday, to take into account the pressure Israeli soldiers applied on Palestinian detainees when assessing its decision to restore funding to UNRWA.
“The absolute prohibition on torture is a foundational norm of the rules-based international system, and the rule against use of torture evidence is both an essential component of the absolute ban and an important means of ensuring it is not violated,” said the groups in the letter.
They stressed that lawyers and independent monitors should be allowed access to Palestinians in Israeli detention facilities and that the government has to “review the decision to suspend UK funding for Unrwa to ensure compliance with the UK’s obligation not to rely on evidence received through torture or other ill-treatment as a basis for formal decision-making.
Late January, the UK government announced that it was pausing funding to Unrwa in the wake of Israeli allegations that a number of agency staff were involved in the 7 October attacks on southern Palestinian territories.
In February, the agency produced a report in which it said that Palestinians released into Gaza from detention in ‘Israel’ were coerced into saying Unrwa staff had been involved in 7 October through the use of severe physical beatings, waterboarding and threats of harm to family members.
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