A/HRC/37/39 (c) Further communications 15. OHCHR sent notes verbales on 11 July 2017 to the 21 Member States in which the initial 192 screened companies were domiciled, identifying companies domiciled in that Member State. The purpose was to inform those Member States that information had been received alleging that business enterprises domiciled in their territories and/or under their jurisdiction were engaged in one or more listed activities, and to invite any comments or observations concerning measures taken to ensure implementation of resolution 31/36. Fifteen of the 21 Member States responded by the deadline of 1 September 2017. Five of these Member States expressed a position in the notes verbales or in confidential meetings that supported OHCHR being in direct contact with companies. Six of the 15 Member States did not comment on this point, while four Member States expressed a position in the notes verbales or in confidential meetings that did not support direct contact between OHCHR and companies.4 16. In reviewing past practices, consulting with the Working Group on the issue of human rights and transnational corporations and other business enterprises, after having duly considered the responses and positions of Member States, considering the complexity of business relationships involved in each situation concerning listed activities, which often encompassed business enterprises domiciled in multiple States, and to offer a procedural safeguard designed to provide fairness, consistency, reasonableness and absence of arbitrariness of potential decisions that may affect the interests of business enterprises, OHCHR decided to communicate with the initial list of all 192 screened companies – not just those domiciled in the States that indicated they were in favour of such an approach – to provide them with an opportunity to respond to the information presented. 17. Of the 192 screened companies, OHCHR first contacted the companies concerning which the strongest allegations of a clear connection to listed activities had been received. To supplement information received in notes verbales from Member States and through the open call for submissions from interested stakeholders, OHCHR conducted further research into this subset of companies. This stage of the research included analysing public annual financial reports, official websites from companies in English and Hebrew, financial websites and media in English and Hebrew, the Israeli and other stock exchange markets, the websites of Israeli government offices5 and websites of settlement industrial zones and settlement councils. 18. When contacting companies, OHCHR included in the communications, wherever possible, all relevant entities with respect to that particular situation of concern, including parent companies and their subsidiaries, franchisors and franchisees, local distributors of international companies, partners and other entities in relevant business relationships. In some of these cases, further research by OHCHR revealed relevant business entities, such as parent companies or subsidiaries, that were not initially named in the submissions received in notes verbales from Member States or through the open call for submissions from interested stakeholders. This necessitated adding 14 companies to the initial list of 192 screened companies, resulting in a total of 206 companies reviewed at the time of writing (see table below paragraph 22). 19. OHCHR was given limited resources to carry out the mandate within the anticipated time frame, which required it to calibrate its research and engagement with companies accordingly. Not all companies about which OHCHR had received information could be contacted by the time of submission of the present report. At the time of writing, OHCHR 4 5 Notably, one Member State acknowledged awareness of the alleged activity of a company domiciled in its territory, and informed OHCHR that the Government had decided in August 2017 to conduct a baseline study to assess the degree of implementation of the Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights in domestic legislation. OHCHR looks forward to the results of that study. These included the Israeli Companies Registrar (http://havarot.justice.gov.il), the Bank of Israel (www.boi.org.il/heb/Pages/HomePage.aspx), the Knesset Research and Information Centre (www.knesset.gov.il/mmm/heb/index.asp), the Ministry of Environmental Protection (www.sviva.gov.il) and the Ministry of National Infrastructures, Energy and Water Resources (http://energy.gov.il/). 5