A/HRC/31/42
October 2013 the Central Command of the Israel Defense Forces announced that it would
conduct a pilot test of summonses of children in lieu of night arrests. In early February
2014, the Israeli authorities started the pilot programme in Nablus and Hebron
governorates, with cases now being reported throughout the West Bank. The launch of the
summons pilot test is an important operational measure to halt the practice of night arrests
and tackle some of the protection concerns that arise during the first 48 hours of arrest.21
E.
Business and human rights in relation to the settlements
34.
In its resolution 25/28, the Human Rights Council reiterated the call it had already
made in its resolution 22/29 for the relevant United Nations bodies to take all necessary
measures and actions within their mandates to ensure full respect for and compliance with
the Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights and other relevant international laws
and standards, and to ensure the implementation of the United Nations “Protect, Respect
and Remedy” Framework, which provides a global standard for upholding human rights in
relation to business activities that are connected with Israeli settlements in the Occupied
Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem. The international fact-finding mission
recommended that the Working Group on the issue of human rights and transnational
corporations and other business enterprises remain seized of the matter of corporate
engagement with settlements (see A/HRC/22/63, para. 117).
35.
Actions taken by the Working Group were reported in the previous report of the
High Commissioner (A/HRC/28/43 and Corr.1).
36.
In its report to the General Assembly at its seventieth session, the Special
Committee to Investigate Israeli Practices Affecting the Human Rights of the Palestinian
People and Other Arabs of the Occupied Territories reported on information it received that
several companies were profiteering, directly or indirectly, from a wide range of illegal
Israeli practices. The Special Committee noted that such activities took an enormous toll on
the daily lives of Palestinians and that private companies had allegedly played a major role
in funding, facilitating and supporting the Israeli occupation (see A/70/406 and Corr.1,
para. 18).
37.
In that same report, the Special Committee grouped the activities of corporations
involved in settlements into three broad categories (para. 19): (a) Israeli industry engaged in
the construction of Israeli settlements, in production in settlements or in the provision of
services to settlements; (b) control of the Palestinian population by constructing the wall
and checkpoints, and the provision of private security or specialized equipment, such as
surveillance and crowd control weapons; and (c) economic exploitation by using
Palestinian workers, Palestinian natural resources or the Palestinian captive market. In
addition, it referred to corporate activities of concern from a business and human rights
perspective in the Occupied Palestinian Territory and the occupied Syrian Golan.
38.
To exemplify the different categories, a number of case studies were presented to the
Special Committee, for instance on financing the Israeli occupation, the exploitation of
natural resources, corporate interdependency and the mislabelling of settlement products
(see A/70/406 and Corr.1, paras. 20-27).
39.
The Special Committee stressed that corporate actors needed to be held accountable
for the impact of their activities on human rights. Both Governments and businesses played
a role in and were responsible for protecting and respecting the human rights of the
Palestinian people. Moreover, the Special Committee stressed that third countries too
21
Ibid.
9
Select target paragraph3
Connect to a paragraph
Connect to an entity
Disable highlights
Add to table of contents