Database of Business Enterprises Pursuant to Human Rights Council Resolutions 31/36 and 53/25

Mandate

The Human Rights Council (HRC) is an intergovernmental body, made up of 47 Member States. Resolutions are voted on and adopted by these Member States. On 24 March 2016, the HRC adopted resolution 31/36, entitled “Israeli settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and in the occupied Syrian Golan”. Paragraph 17 of this resolution requests the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, in close consultation with the Working Group on the issue of human rights and transnational corporations and other business enterprises, to produce a database of all business enterprises involved in certain specified activities related to the Israeli settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem.

On 14 July 2023, the HRC adopted resolution 53/25, entitled “Implementation of Human Rights Council resolution 31/36”, in which the Council requests the High Commissioner to ensure that yearly updates of the database include addition and removal of companies. 

Scope of the Database

As specified in resolution 31/36, the database should contain business enterprises involved in the activities detailed in paragraph 96 of the report of the independent international fact-finding mission to investigate the implications of the Israeli settlements on the civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights of the Palestinian people throughout the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem (A/HRC/22/63). That paragraph lists the following activities:

• The supply of equipment and materials facilitating the construction and the expansion of settlements and the wall, and associated infrastructures
• The supply of surveillance and identification equipment for settlements, the wall and checkpoints directly linked with settlements
• The supply of equipment for the demolition of housing and property, the destruction of agricultural farms, greenhouses, olives groves and crops
• The supply of security services, equipment and materials to enterprises operating in settlements
• The provision of services and utilities supporting the maintenance and existence of settlements, including transport
• Banking and financial operations helping to develop, expand or maintain settlements and their activities, including loans for housing and the development of businesses
• The use of natural resources, in particular water and land, for business purposes
• Pollution, and the dumping of waste in or its transfer to Palestinian villages
• Captivity of the Palestinian financial and economic markets, as well as practices that disadvantage Palestinian enterprises, including through restrictions on movement, administrative and legal constraints
• Use of benefits and reinvestments of enterprises owned totally or partially by settlers for developing, expanding and maintaining the settlements.

Reports

2018: OHCHR published an interim report (A/HRC/37/39), setting out the methods of work and methodology used to discharge the mandate as set out in Council resolution 31/36.

2020: OHCHR published a report (A/HRC/43/71) containing a database listing 112 business enterprises.

2023: OHCHR published an update containing a review of the 112 business enterprises.

2024: OHCHR published a report (A/HRC/57/21) detailing the legal and human rights foundations for the work, as well as an updated methodology for updating the database. The report also contains preliminary data from an initial screening of the submissions received in response to a call for input made in May 2024.

Database of business enterprises involved in the listed activities

OHCHR is in the process of reviewing the current database and the submissions received in response to the call for input made in May 2024 and expects to release the results of its assessment progressively. Until the next update is made public, the most recent public update of the database continues to be that provided by OHCHR in 2023.

Call for input

The most recent call for input was open from 2 May until 12 June 2024. Future calls for input will be made available here.

To share any information or to ask questions, please contact ohchr-optdatabase-business@un.org.