clear

Creating new perspectives since 2009

Another UN agency in Jordan drops G4S following BDS campaign

April 20, 2016 at 9:46 am

The United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS) has become the latest UN agency in Jordan to drop G4S, following a campaign by the Palestinian-led Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement.

According to a BDS statement, UNOPS has not renewed its contract with the British security giant, and has instead hired a new security service provider at its Amman office. The news follows recent moves by the Jordan branches of UNHCR and UNICEF to distance themselves from G4S.

G4S has a contract with the Israeli prison service to provide services and equipment to prisons where Palestinians are held without trial and subjected to torture. It also supplies equipment for checkpoints and settlements.

In response, the #UNdropG4S campaign is urging the UN to drop all of its contracts with G4S. UN’s data shows spent more than $22 million on services provided by G4S in 2014.

Guman Mussa, Arab world coordinator with the Palestinian BDS National Committee, said: “The fact that G4S has announced it wants to sell its Israeli business shows that our campaign is having a huge impact. But the company has a track record of saying one thing and doing another so we have to keep the pressure up until they actually end their complicity in Israel’s human rights abuses.”

Shahd Al-Hamouri, member of the Jordan BDS movement, welcomed the news: “This is another positive step but we urge the UN and specifically in Jordan the UNDP, World Food Program and UN Women to follow suit. All UN agencies must end their contracts with G4S due to its continued violation of international law and the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights.”