Open Letter to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation: Divest from G4S!

 

We, the undersigned Palestinian Non-Governmental Organizations and Coalitions committed to the implementation of international human rights and humanitarian law, are writing to inform you of the conduct in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT) of G4S, the international security company in which the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation purchased a 3% stake last year, worth more than $170m.

 

In 2007 G4S signed a contract with the Israeli Prison Service to provide and maintain security systems at five prisons and detention centres located in Israel and the OPT, at which Palestinians political prisoners are detained.[i] In direct violation of Article 76 of the Fourth Geneva Convention, Israel forcibly transfers these prisoners from occupied territory into the territory of the occupier, in prisons that have security management systems maintained and operated by G4S. According to international law, these violations are tantamount to war crimes. In 2012, the former Special Rapporteur for the Occupied Territories, Professor Richard Falk, singled out G4S as a prime example of a company that should be held accountable for its complicity in human rights abuses.[ii]

 

Each year, the Israeli army arrests thousands of Palestinians in an attempt to suppress any opposition to its continued occupation. They are arrested under Israeli military orders that prohibit basic civil, cultural and political rights such as the attendance of demonstrations, membership of political organizations, and the writing of slogans on the Apartheid Wall. Among those arrested are hundreds of children as young as 12 years old, who are often tortured, ill-treated and placed in solitary confinement during their interrogation. G4S helps to operate the Moscobiyeh and Jalameh interrogation centers, where this torture takes place, and Damon prison, where child prisoners are held and subjected to violence.

 

The situation for Palestinian prisoners is grave. Since 1967, Israel has detained over 800,000 Palestinians, amounting to 20% of the Palestinian population. Moreover, the widespread torture of prisoners has been well documented, including Arafat Jaradat, who was tortured to death in G4S secured Megiddo prison, in February 2013.[iii]

 

A recent legal study conducted by Diakonia International Humanitarian Law Resource Centre found that G4S has “failed to demonstrate a genuine commitment to comply with international law in good faith” and urges investors to contemplate “unparalleled risk to their investment in a business activity whose profit model is conflict- dependent and potentially illegal”.[iv]

 

Several organizations have severed ties with G4S for its complicity in human rights violations, including the Trauma Centre in Cape Town, South Africa, Amnesty International Denmark and the Rehabilitation and Research Centre for Torture Victims in Copenhagen, and the Dutch Trade Union Abvakabo.[v] Most recently, G4S was referred to the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development in the United Kingdom due to its complicity in human rights violations.[vi]

 

The Gates Foundation says that it is “guided by the belief that every life has equal value” and that it uses its investments to fund projects that “help all people lead healthy, productive lives”.  As a development and anti-poverty organisation working for the dignity and freedom of all people, we urge you to divest from G4S, a company that is operating in a way that clearly and directly contravenes the stated values and investment policies of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

 

 

Signed,

 

 

 

 

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