U.N. may update blacklist of companies operating in Israeli settlements

"The United Nations is considering publishing an update to its blacklist of businesses operating in east Jerusalem, the West Bank and Golan Heights.

An initial list of 112 such companies was published in 2020. The mandate to make changes to that database on an annual basis, however, has been unfilled due to lack of funds.

On Friday the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michele Bachelet said she would consider an update even though funding remained an issue.

'I am currently considering possible options for an update on an exceptional basis and without prejudice as to future decisions,' Bachelet told the UN Human Rights Council during its 49th session in Geneva that opened on February 28 and ends on April 1.

Bachelet noted that she had 'flagged to the UNHRC both at its 46th session and again at its 47th session, the issue of resource requirements.'

'Specifically,' Bachelet explained, 'it is not possible for [her] office to absorb on an open-ended recurring basis into the future the substantial resources that updating the data base and reporting to the council would annually imply.'

She noted that anything beyond an exceptional one-time update, could 'only be discharged consistent with the organization’s budgeting process applicable to funding mandates of the council.'...”