European supermarkets continue to stock fresh produce, such as tomatoes and melons, grown by Moroccan and foreign businesses in Western Sahara... Doing business in Western Sahara, and using its natural resources and land without the Sahrawi people’s express consent, amounts to a serious breach of the peremptory norm of international law on the self-determination of peoples... Companies doing such business in Western Sahara are thus contributing to and benefitting from the systematic and widespread abuses of the Sahrawi people’s human rights.

Messe Berlin GmbH is arguably “directly linked” with these human rights violations through its relationship with Azura Group, who was an exhibitor at the 2019 Fruit Logistica trade fair...

Our organizations addressed Azura Group with these concerns in January 2019. So far, we have not received a response from the company...

Messe Berlin GmbH denied having any responsibility for vetting exhibitors on such grounds...

In view of this, we consider it necessary to publicly raise the following concerns:

1) The scope of applicable laws ...

2) The definition of business partners ...

Our organizations welcome Messe Berlin’s openness to engage us on these issues, and take the opportunity to address this open letter to Messe Berlin in the spirit of transparent and productive dialogue. We ask that you take our concerns into account when acting on your responsibility to engage in human rights due diligence, and would appreciate your communicating these measures in a timely and public manner.