Contents
1. Action Required
2. Summary
3. Background
4. Sample Letters
1. Action Required
a. Attend the protest outside the G4S AGM in London:
Date: Thursday 06 June 2013
Time: 1:00pm – 3:00pm
Venue: Salters’ Hall, 4 Fore Street, London, EC2Y 5DE
Nearest Train/ Tube stations: Moorgate, Bank
Organised by IHRC and Inminds
b. Write letters and emails to the stakeholders of G4S urging them to use their influence at the AGM to ensure G4S discontinues all business with Israel with immediate effect.
2. Summary
IHRC are urging campaigners and activists to protest against G4S outside the G4S AGM for their provision of expertise and security systems to Israeli prisons, and their complicity in the detention and torture of Palestinian children. G4S’s shareholders must be reminded not to put their profits above human rights violations and that they must use their influence to pressure G4S to terminate all its contracts and business dealings with Israel.
3. Background
G4S is a British-Danish security firm. Provisions made by G4S to the Israeli security apparatus include a perimeter defence system and command control centre for Ofer prison in occupied Palestine, and security systems for the al-Jalame interrogation centre in Israel.
Ofer and Al-Jalame are notorious for having housed Palestinian children in solitary confinement. The internment of children in solitary confinement, as well as their interrogation and torture, is made possible by the technological and logistical support provided by G4S.
Arafat Jaradat, 30, died on Saturday 23 February 2013 following interrogation and torture in G4S provisioned Megiddo Prison and Al-Jalame interrogation centre by Israel’s security service Shin Bet. A postmortem and autopsy of Jaradat’s body revealed clear signs of torture and two broken ribs.
In the G4S AGM this year, the stakeholders will undoubtedly celebrate their profits and talk about how socially responsible they’ve been as per the 2012 CSR Report by “helping people to operate in safe and secure environments…” The shareholders need to be informed of the reality of G4S’s ethical standards in making the “administrative detention” and torture of men, women and children possible.
4. Sample Letters
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Sample letters are given below for your convenience. Please note that model letters can be sent directly or adjusted as necessary to include further details. If you receive a reply to the letter you send, we request you to send a copy of the letter you send and the reply you received, to IHRC. This is very important as it helps IHRC to monitor the situation with regards to our campaigns and to improve upon the current model letters.
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a. G4S Shareholders
[Your name]
[Your address]
[Date]
Dear G4S Shareholder,
Re: Complicity of G4S in the illegal occupation of Palestine and its involvement in numerous human rights abuses
As you make your way to the G4SAnnual General Meeting today, please bear in mind the following:
G4S is complicit in the illegal Israeli occupation of Palestine and its involvement in numerous human rights abuses. G4S is providing security systems to help Israel secure prisons and interrogation centres where Palestinian children are being caged and tortured.
Arafat Jaradat, 30 year old Palestinian father of 2 children aged four and two years old, died on Saturday 23 February 2013 following severe torture by Israel’s security service in Megiddo Prison where the whole central command room is provisioned by G4S.
Is this in line with G4S’ Corporate Social Responsibility commitment in which it claims to operate to “high ethical standards” and helps people to “operate in safe and secure environments”?
Are the Palestinian children held in solitary confinement, men held in “administrative detention” for unconfirmed periods of time, and women tortured and abused not entitled to the same safety and security?
It is imperative that you use your influence to raise these concerns at today’s AGM to pressure G4S to discontinue all dealings with Israel with immediate effect. Although exiting a few contracts in 2015 is a move in the right direction, it does not go far enough. The fact of the matter is that G4S is still complicit in the torture of children through its ongoing servicing of Israeli security systems.
If you are not able to influence the key stakeholders at this AGM, then we would urge you to work on the other stakeholders to makes sure they fully divest from Israel by the next AGM if not before.
Yours faithfully,
[Your signature]
[Your name]
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“And what reason have you that you should not fight in the way of Allah and of the weak among the men and the women and the children, (of) those who say: Our Lord! Cause us to go forth from this town, whose people are oppressors, and give us from Thee a guardian and give us from Thee a helper.”
Holy Qur’an: Chapter 4, Verse 75
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