The Business & Human Rights Resource Centre has submitted an analysis to the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967 call focusing on the corporate sector’s involvement in sustaining Israel’s unlawful occupation, racial segregation, and apartheid regime.

This submission addresses corporate responsibility in this context, drawing on our previous submission on the role of business in the war on Gaza and over a decade of monitoring of media and civil society reports. Given the ICJ’s order to Israel to implement provisional measures to prevent genocidal acts in Gaza, what the UN has called “reasonable grounds to believe that genocide is being committed”, and a growing number of legal experts and civil society organisations “concluding that genocide is taking place in Gaza”, investors and companies must act on their well-defined responsibilities and growing risk of complicity as they continue to operate and/or provide services to the region, urging immediate steps to address systemic violations and promote accountability in the OPT.

Key points from the submission include:

• The alarming lack of transparency of corporate actors, particularly amid growing concerns about genocide in Gaza and the increasing risks of complicity for companies operating in the region;
• An overview of harms associated with arms and tech companies, based on case studies and our analysis of data gathered on our database on their role in human rights abuses in the OPT, including support for illegal settlements, facilitation of surveillance and censorship, and aid to military operations;
• The role and responsibility of investors in human rights abuses in OPT;
• Examples of companies and investors taking positive steps to comply with international law and business standards including actions such as divestment and responsible exit;
• Examples of legal actions against corporations that underscore the growing risks for businesses and investors connected to human rights abuses in conflict zones.

BHRRC's recommendations:

States

• Prohibit transfer of arms, ammunition, dual-use technologies, and other military equipment to Israel.
• Mandate heightened HREDD for companies operating in conflict-affected areas.
• Impose sanctions and initiate action on entities complicit in violations.
• Support and expand UN mechanisms for accountability.
• Develop binding national and international legal frameworks to regulate corporate activities in conflict zones, including mandating heightened HREDD and ensuring public reporting thereof.
• Facilitate multi-stakeholder platforms to promote dialogue on business-related risks to human rights in conflict and ways to strengthen monitoring and accountability.

Companies

• Urgently end the transfer, sale or other services related to arms, ammunition, dual-use technologies, and other military equipment to Israel
• Apply UN and OECD standards for heightened HREDD across operations and value chains. Ensure transparency regarding risk assessment and mitigation plans, including in respect of civil society and media requests for information on conduct around the war.
• Actively engage with key stakeholders representing victims and vulnerable groups in the design, implementation, and monitoring of due diligence.
• Where conduct of heightened HREDD and ensuing measures are not possible, work towards divestment and responsible exit to refrain from further contributing to harms.
• Use the company’s individual and collective leverage to promote respect for law, human rights, democracy, and peace, and raise awareness of potential harms and risks in conflict-affected zones, and to share learnings.
• Deliver consistent approaches to heightened due diligence across challenging business environments to respect civilians and the rules of war and avoid double standards.

Investor

• Develop and conduct heightened HREDD plans and actively engage company investees to insist on the same.
• Use individual and collective investor voice to ensure that investee companies immediately end the sale or services related to arms, ammunition, dual-use technologies, and other military equipment to Israel.
• Consult with independent experts, including from civil society, on the risk of harm and mitigation measures necessary from investors to promote corporate heightened due diligence, respect for law, democracy, and peace.
• Insist on investee companies engaging with civil society and media to provide adequate responses to allegations of human rights violations linked to them in this war.