Joint Open Letter to the UN High Commissioner on UN Database of Business Enterprises with Activities Related to Israeli Settlements in the OPT

Michelle Bachelet 

United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights 

Palais Wilson, United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights 

Geneva, Switzerland 

Re: Release of the United Nations Database of Businesses Engaged in Activities Related to Israeli Settlements 

Dear High Commissioner, 

As you are aware, in March 2016, United Nations Human Rights Council (HRC) resolution 31/36 mandated your Office to produce a database of all businesses engaged in listed activities related to Israel’s settlement enterprise (the Database), as detailed in paragraph 96 of the report of the independent international fact-finding mission to investigate the implications of Israeli settlements on the rights of the Palestinian people throughout the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT). The resolution further stipulated that the data is to be presented and transmitted to the HRC at its 34^thsession, and the Database is to be updated annually.^[1]

The Database will bring an important degree of transparency on the activities of businesses which contravene rules and principles of international humanitarian and human rights law as a result of their operations in or with illegal Israeli settlements.  

The undersigned organizations are deeply concerned that the release of the Database, including the names of companies facilitating Israel’s settlement enterprise, has once again been delayed and was not published at the 41^stHRC session. This delay comes over three years after the Council established the database mandate and more than two years after its initial scheduled release, at the 34^thHRC session. We know of no other mandate given to the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) by the HRC that has been subject to such a prolonged and open-ended delay. 

The reasons for this delay have not been communicated with sufficient explanation or transparency, opening the OHCHR up to allegations that the delay could be due to political pressure.^[2]During the recent 41^stHRC session, a joint statement was delivered on behalf of 65 UN Member States, requesting you to “give urgency to fulfilling the mandate of resolution 31/36 in its entirety, by publishing of the Database including the names of companies benefiting from economic activities in Israeli settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, and not risk jeopardizing the independence of the Office or setting a precedent where other mandates could be discredited and therefore not implemented.”  

In addition, a joint statement delivered on behalf of 27 UN Member States, stressed the “crucial importance that the High Commissioner and her Office are able to operate and execute their mandates in an independent manner and without interference, of any kind,” and to allow for genuine and effective accountability and justice for affected individuals and communities around the world. Fulfilling this mandate without further delay would affirm the independence and impartiality of OHCHR.^[3]  

Since the adoption of HRC resolution 31/36, the Israeli government has escalated the construction of new settlements in the West Bank.[4]Some Israeli officials, notably the Prime Minister, have also indicated that they will seek to formally “annex” parts of the West Bank.[5]Israel’s settlement enterprise constitutes serious violations of international humanitarian law and entrench a system of gross human rights violations and institutionalized discrimination that Palestinians residing in the occupied territory suffer from on a daily basis.

The undersigned organizations acknowledge the need to ensure due diligence in the mandates entrusted to the OHCHR. However, with regard to HRC resolution 31/36, we understand that all companies considered for inclusion on the Database should have been contacted by now and have had ample time to respond. Over a year ago, on 7 August 2018, the then High Commissioner indicated in a letter addressed to the HRC President: 

Consistent with paragraph 26 of the 2018 report, after all 206 companies have been contacted, OHCHR expects to provide the Council [HRC] shortly thereafter an update, including the names of those engaged in listed activities.[6]

The undersigned organizations recognize the efforts exerted by the OHCHR in the creation and development of the Database thus far. We maintain our position that the Database is not only important for the protection of the rights of the Palestinian people, but also constitutes an important development in international efforts to ensure respect for international law by State and non-State actors. Moreover, the Database is an important tool to strengthen the implementation of international law and standards, including the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, in situations of conflict and occupation.

High Commissioner, 

In the OPT, as in other cases of belligerent occupation, the absence of accountability has enabled the Occupying Power, Israel, to engage in activity in violation of international law in the occupied territory with near total impunity. This has allowed many private actors, including businesses, to contribute to and benefit from, sometimes unwittingly, gross human rights violations. The 2013 report of the UN commissioned International Fact-Finding Mission to investigate the implications of the Israeli settlements on the human rights of the Palestinian people, found that “business enterprises have, directly and indirectly, enabled, facilitated and profited from the construction and growth of the settlements”.[7]This has detrimentally affected the lives of millions of Palestinians, depriving them of their fundamental human rights.[8]

In light of the aforementioned, and your undertaking in your letter of 4 March 2019 to the HRC President to finalize the mandated activity “in coming months,” the undersigned organizations urge you, as the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, to fully implement the mandate provided in HRC resolution 31/36, by releasing and transmitting the data including the names of companies involved in the specified activities, to the Human Rights Council, so that it may be considered at the Council’s 42^ndsession in September 2019, and by annually updating the Database.

The full implementation of this mandate by the OHCHR would support and assist in the respect and protection of international law and universal human rights, regardless of the political context. 

We thank you for your consideration of our letter and remain at your service should you require further information.

Yours sincerely,

Undersigned: