"100 Palestinian, Regional and International Organisations Call on High Commissioner for Human Rights to Publish the UN Database on Business Enterprises with Activities Related to Israeli Settlements in the OPT ", 27 Nov 2018

On Tuesday, 27 November 2018, 100 Palestinian, regional, and international organisations sent a joint open letter to the United Nations (UN) High Commissioner for Human Rights concerning the UN Database on business enterprises with activities related to Israeli settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT), established pursuant to Human Rights Council resolution 31/36 of 2016.  The letter urges the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) to publish an online, dynamic, and regularly updated Database of businesses active in Israeli settlements.

The joint open letter highlights that the Database establishes a significant normative development in the framework of business and human rights in context of conflict and occupation...The letter further reminds the High Commissioner that the results from the process surrounding the Database, ongoing for three years now, have not been transmitted with the necessary transparency, and warns against further delays in its publication and development...[T]he letter calls on the High Commissioner and her Office to consider the Database as a preventive measure that would enable States and corporations to make decisions to pre-empt their involvement in human rights violations and ensure their commitment to international human rights and humanitarian law...

The 100 undersigned organisations call on the UN High Commissioner to:

    Create a public, online, and regularly updated platform of business enterprises engaged in business activities related to Israeli settlements that have been screened and contacted...;
    Ensure that adequate resources are allocated to ensure that the Database is kept up to date...;
    Encourage States,..., to highlight the significance of the UN Database in their advice to companies...