GENEVA - The UN Human Rights Office today issued an update to its database of businesses involved in certain activities in illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territory, listing a total of 158 business enterprises from 11 countries.
The report was mandated by the UN Human Rights Council, and today's release updates the database that was first issued in 2020, then updated in 2023. It identifies businesses involved in specific activities listed by the Council resolution, including: supplying equipment and materials that facilitate the construction and maintenance of illegal settlements, demolition of houses and property of Palestinians, surveillance activities, the use of natural resources for business purposes, and the pollution and dumping of waste in Palestinian villages.
The UN Human Rights Office had received submissions concerning 596 businesses following a public call for input in 2024. With the resources made available, the Office reviewed 215 of these enterprises for this update, including all 97 that were listed in its 2023 update.
A total of 68 new companies were added to the list published in 2023, while seven of those listed in 2023 were removed as they were no longer involved in any of the activities concerned, taking the total number to 158 businesses in the current update.
The companies covered by the 2025 update focus primarily on business activities related to construction, real estate, mining and quarrying. The Office continues to review the allegations concerning the businesses whose assessment could not be completed in time for the present report.
All screened businesses were informed that the Office had received allegations about their potential involvement, and all of them were invited to provide relevant information. The Office applied an established, globally applicable methodology based on the Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights to assess the responses and information received. Based on this methodology, the Office found reasonable grounds to conclude that 158 of the 215 companies reviewed were involved in listed activities.
The report calls on companies to "take appropriate action to address the adverse human rights impacts" of their activities. "Where business enterprises identify that they have caused or contributed to adverse human rights impacts, they should provide for or cooperate in remediation through appropriate processes," the report says.
"This report underscores the due diligence responsibility of businesses working in contexts of conflict to ensure their activities do not contribute to human rights abuses," UN Human Rights Chief Volker Türk said. "The methodology we used to produce this report is also an important tool to assess adverse impacts of business activities on human rights in other parts of the world," he added.
The report also highlights the role of the State to "act with diligence to ensure that business enterprises operating in conflict-affected areas are not involved in or otherwise materially contributing to serious human rights violations or abuses".
Most of the concerned companies listed in the latest update are based in Israel, while others are based in Canada, China, France, Germany, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, the United Kingdom and the United States of America.
"States must take appropriate steps to ensure, through judicial, administrative, legislative or other appropriate means, that when business-related human rights abuses occur within their territory and/or subject to their jurisdiction, those affected have access to effective remedies, consistent with international law," it adds.
The full list of companies, both those involved in the particular settlement-related activities concerned and those previously listed entities that have ceased their involvement in such activities, can be found annexed to the report.
