JOINT POSITION PAPER
Brussels, 8 October 2018
The undersigned human rights organisations stress the utmost importance of European Union (EU) and Member States supporting the United Nations (UN) Database on businesses operating in Israeli settlements (the Database), as a necessary and proportionate measure to promote greater transparency, accountability and respect by both states and businesses of international law.
Companies that engage in business activities in or with settlements play an essential role in Israel’s settlement enterprise, which is in violation of international humanitarian law and lies at the root of the systematic human rights violations affecting every aspect of Palestinians’ lives. Doing business in or with the settlements contributes to the maintenance and expansion of settlements and therefore to violations of human rights. Businesses in these situations are acting in breach of their responsibility to respect human rights.
While we welcome the steps taken so far by the EU and its Member States in ensuring non-recognition of the illegal situation created by the establishment of settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT), we call on them to support a public and regularly updated database and to actively cooperate in bringing companies under their jurisdiction in line with international humanitarian law and their human rights responsibilities.
Read the full Statement here.
The Undersigned organisations:
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Al-Haq
Al Mezan Center for Human Rights
Amnesty International
Arab Association for Human Rights (HRA)
Article 1 Collective
Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies (CIHRS)
Centre for Research on Multinational Corporations (SOMO)
CNCD-11.11.11
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Corporate Europe Observatory
Dutch League for Human Rights (LvRM)
EuroMed Rights
International Accountability Project
International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH)
Jerusalem Legal Aid and Human Rights Center (JLAC)
Lawyers for Palestinian Human Rights (LPHR)
Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR)
11.11.11
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