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Veolia-controlled company participating in a public tender in The Netherlands
10، Aug 2011

DATE: 22 June 2011
REF. NO.: 224/2011

As Palestinian organisations dedicated to the protection and promotion of human rights in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT), we are concerned about the involvement of corporations in violations

of international humanitarian law. Of recent concern are the activities of Veolia Environment, a French multinational providing infrastructure through its subsidiary VeoliaTransdev to Israeli local authorities,   for its involvement in the construction of a light rail tramway linking West Jerusalem to illegal Jewish settlements in occupied East Jerusalem and elsewhere in the West Bank.

On 3 May 2011, as Palestinian Council of Human Rights Organisations, we sent Stadsregio Arnhem Nijmegen a letter urging them to exclude VeoliaTransdev, parent company of the Dutch transport market leader Connexxion, from the upcoming one billion Euros public transport tender for Arnhem Nijmegen and from all future contracts on grounds of grave misconduct in the OPT. The tender in question will include all the Arnhem Nijmegen city district’s public bus services as well as the Arnhem-Doetinchem railway line, one of the most frequently traveled regional tracks.

In a press release issued two weeks after our joint advocacy initiative, Dutch local authorities publicly announced that Hermes and Keolis are taking part in the public transport tender while VeoliaTransdev will not participate in the bid. However, Hermes is a subsidiary of Connexxion, which means that Connexxion exercises full control over one of the two companies tendering. Connexxion, itself subject to the control of VeoliaTransdev, effectively brings Hermes under the overall control of the Veolia Group. By virtue of this structural relationship, VeoliaTransdev will benefit from profits generated through the exploitation of the public transport concession for the Arnhem Nijmegen city district, should Hermes be awarded the contract.

The undersigned organisations find it highly problematic that VeoliaTransdev, a company with a disputed reputation and involvement in illegal activities in the OPT, circumvents civil society concerns by tendering through Hermes, and therefore calls on the Stadsregio Arnhem Nijmegen to exclude Veolia’s vehicle Hermes from the public transport tender.

We are further gravely concerned about the relationship between the Dutch Government and transporter Connexxion. The Dutch Government owns one-third of the shares in formerly state-owned Connexxion as a result of a controversial transaction between the Dutch Government and Transdev and the Bank Nederlandse Gemeenten (a specialised financial institution for the public sector) in which, in mid-2007, the State sold two-third of its shares to French transporter Transdev.

It is highly undesirable for the Dutch Government to have a shareholders relationship with VeoliaTransdev, as its obligations under international law cannot be reconciled with the violations of international humanitarian law to which the Veolia Group is associated to. Therefore, as Palestinian human rights organisations, we call upon the Dutch Government to promptly reconsider its participation in businesses of the Veolia Group.

 

Sahar Francis
General Director 
Addameer Prisoner Support and 
Human Rights Association
 Shawqi Issa
General Director 
Ensan Center for Human Rights and 
Democracy
Khalil Abu Shammala 
General Director
Al-Dameer Association for Human
Rights 
 Issam Aruri
General Director
Jerusalem Center for Legal Aid
and Human Rights
 Shawan Jabarin 
General Director
Al-Haq 
Iyad Barghouti
General Director
Ramallah Center for Human Rights
Studies
Issam Younis
General Director      
Al Mezan Center for Human Rights
Maha Abu Dayieh
General Director
Women’s Centre for Legal Aid
and Counselling
 Rifat Kassis
General Director  
Defence for Children International
- Palestine Section