A/HRC/23/21 far”. 38 The Special Rapporteur believes that, without Israel demonstrating good faith compliance with the Geneva Conventions with respect to settlements, the political preconditions for peace negotiations do not exist. V. Businesses that profit from Israeli settlements 50. In his report submitted to the General Assembly in October 2012, 39 the Special Rapporteur focused attention on business enterprises that profit from Israeli settlements. A central part of the report was the highlighting of a selection of businesses that had engaged in profit-making operations in relation to Israeli settlements. The Special Rapporteur noted his commitment to seeking clarification from these businesses and, in this respect, wishes to mention briefly the responses received from them. Additional recent developments in relation to businesses that profit from Israeli settlements are discussed thereafter. 51. Of the 13 businesses highlighted in the above-mentioned report, responses were received from Assa Abloy, Cemex, Dexia, G4S, Motorola and Volvo. No reply was received from Ahava, Caterpillar, Elbit Systems, Hewlett-Packard, Mehadrin, the Riwal Holding Group and Veolia Environment. It is disappointing that the latter six businesses decided that it was not necessary to respond to allegations of serious human rights and international humanitarian law abuses and violations. Hewlett-Packard and Veolia Environment did not respond despite the fact that they are signatories to the Global Compact, which implies a good faith commitment to adhere to the guidelines for corporate behaviour. 52. Volvo’s response clarified that Merkavim no longer produced buses that transport prisoners from Palestine to Israel. However, Volvo repeated its argument that, while “it is regrettable and sad if our products are used for destructive purposes [,] we have no means to ultimately control how and where our products are used.” The Special Rapporteur notes that this line of argument has been adopted by other companies, and intends to examine its adequacy against applicable international laws, standards and commitments in a future report. 53. Motorola informed the Special Rapporteur that: As a well-respected and responsible corporate citizen, our global activities are conducted in accordance with United States, local, country and other applicable laws, as well as our own code of business conduct. Our company has a comprehensive set of policies and procedures that address human rights that are designed to ensure that our operations worldwide are conducted with the highest standards of integrity. It is regrettable that this reply does not respond to the allegations, which were that Motorola provided surveillance and communications systems that constituted integral parts of the infrastructure of Israeli settlements and checkpoints along the wall, and that such systems facilitated the implementation of improper restrictions on Palestinians’ freedom of movement within their own territory. It would be of particular interest to know how Motorola’s due diligence policy takes into account such allegations when Motorola next considers additional sales to the State of Israel. 38 39 “Israel Settlements Will Continue To Expand, Says New Housing Minister Uri Ariel”, Reuters, 17 March 2013. A/67/379. 19