A/HRC/43/71
I. Background
1.
The present report is submitted to the Human Rights Council pursuant to its
resolution 31/36, on Israeli settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East
Jerusalem, and in the occupied Syrian Golan, adopted on 24 March 2016. 1
2.
In paragraph 17 of that resolution, the Human Rights Council requested the
production of a database of all business enterprises involved in certain specified activities
related to the Israeli settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, to be updated
annually, and to transmit the data therein in the form of a report to the Council.
3.
In 2018, a report on the matter was submitted to the Human Rights Council at its
thirty-seventh session (A/HRC/37/39). That report contained the methodology used to
respond to the request of the Council.
4.
Also in that report, it was noted that the Office of the United Nations High
Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) had reviewed information on 321 business
enterprises following the transmittal of notes verbales to States, the issuance of an open
invitation for submissions and on the basis of its own research. A total of 206 business
enterprises were assessed at that time for further consideration.
5.
It was also noted that, once OHCHR had been in contact with all 206 companies,
and subject to determinations of their responses and non-responses, OHCHR expected to
provide the names of the companies engaged in listed activities in a future update. Before
the determinations on the companies were made public, OHCHR would notify the
companies concerned.
II. Mandate
6.
The request for the production of a database made by the Human Rights Council in
paragraph 17 of its resolution 31/36 was in follow-up to the report of the independent
international fact-finding mission to investigate the implications of the Israeli settlements
on the civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights of the Palestinian people
throughout the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem (A/HRC/22/63). In
paragraph 96 of its report, the fact-finding mission set out a list of activities that had raised
particular human rights concerns (referred to as “listed activities”). In its resolution 31/36,
the Council defined the database by reference to those listed activities, which are the
following:
(a)
The supply of equipment and materials facilitating the construction and the
expansion of settlements and the wall, and associated infrastructure;
(b)
The supply of surveillance and identification equipment for settlements, the
wall and checkpoints directly linked with settlements;
(c)
The supply of equipment for the demolition of housing and property, the
destruction of agricultural farms, greenhouses, olive groves and crops;
(d)
The supply of security services, equipment and materials to enterprises
operating in settlements;
(e)
The provision of services and utilities supporting the maintenance and
existence of settlements, including transport;
(f)
Banking and financial operations helping to develop, expand or maintain
settlements and their activities, including loans for housing and the development of
businesses;
1
2
While the Human Rights Council referred, in its resolution 31/36, to the occupied Syrian Golan, in
paragraph 17 of that same resolution it requested the production of a database based on information
contained in a report (A/HRC/22/63) that pertains to the Occupied Palestinian Territory only.
Business enterprises involved in activities related to the occupied Syrian Golan are not therefore
considered for the purposes of the present report.
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