G4S Belgium involved in human rights violations
11.4.2011
Question for written answer E-003873/2011
to the Commission
Rule 117
Nessa Childers (S&D)
The London session of the Russell Tribunal on Palestine showed that G4S Israel, which is 91 % owned by G4S:
- 1.is providing security equipment and services to incarceration facilities holding Palestinian political prisoners inside Israel and the occupied West Bank;
- 2.is offering security services and security guards to businesses in settlements; and
- 3.is providing security systems for the Israeli police headquarters in the West Bank,
all of which is illegal under the Fourth Geneva Convention. G4S has also provided equipment and maintenance services to Israeli military checkpoints in the West Bank, built as part of the ‘Separation Wall’ which was declared illegal by the International Court of Justice in its Advisory Opinion of 9 July 2004. Therefore, G4S, by assisting Israel in its violations of international law and international humanitarian law, finds itself complicit in those violations. However, on 21 January 2011, G4S Belgium was selected as the official security provider for the European Commission, with the largest manned security contract in Belgium. G4S will provide ‘a total security solution’ for 68 buildings in Brussels and its immediate surroundings.
Will the Commission hold G4S accountable for its involvement in Israel and Palestine, and review the EU's decision to grant contracts to G4S to provide security to the Commission, in light of G4S’s complicity in Israel’s violations of international law with respect to the settlements and the construction of the Wall?
OJ C 314 E, 27/10/2011