BDS forces UN women’s office in Jordan to cancel G4S contract

The United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN Women) in Jordan has dropped its contracts with the world’s largest security firm, G4S, following an ongoing BDS campaign over the firm’s role in Israel’s violations of human rights, Jordan BDS has reported.

Jordan BDS said it welcomes UN Women’s decision and salutes the agency for taking a principled step in line with its core values of promoting human rights and human dignity. Accordingly, UN Women has become the fifth UN agency in Jordan to drop its contracts with occupation profiteer G4S alongside WFP, UNOPS, UNICEF and UNHCR.

G4S has a track record in human and refugee rights violations in many countries across the world, which led dozens of universities, unions, pension funds and more to drop their contracts with the company as well as divest their shares from it following calls by the BDS movement worldwide.

The #UNDropG4S campaign began in 2015, in which Jordan BDS took an active part through organising actions and lobbying with different UN agencies, the latest of which was a demonstration outside UN Women office in Amman in commemoration of the Nakba in partnership with multiple Jordanian civil society organizations.

Jordan BDS demanded the local and regional offices of the United Nations Development Programme – the last UN office in Jordan to hold contracts with G4S – follow the lead of the five UN agencies before it that showed a firm commitment to human rights.

Timeline: International attempts to boycott BDS