We, the undersigned, applaud the recent decision of the University of Chichester and U of C SU to include an ethical misconduct clause in the U of C campus contracts procurement policy. Such a clause will enable the university and SU to exclude companies guilty of human rights abuses, or complicity in such abuses, from bidding for campus contracts. Like the 2013 decision to require the university’s sub-contractors to move towards paying at least the living wage to all their campus staff, this measure is a robust contribution to an ethical procurement policy for campus services.

We note that the current supplier of waste disposal services to both the SU and the University, Veolia, is the target of an international boycott campaign protesting the company’s complicity in human rights violations in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem. Veolia, a multinational environmental waste and transport corporation based in France, runs the Jerusalem Light Railway, linking illegal Israeli settlements to Israel; it also dumps waste collected from illegal settlements at Tovlan, the landfill site it operates in the occupied Jordan valley. These activities have been condemned by the UN Special Rapporteur to Israel-Palestine, Richard Falk, an active supporter of the BIN Veolia campaign, who in 2012 urged North London Waste Authority not to select Veolia for its public contracts.

Veolia's activities in the West Bank are prime examples of corporate 'grave misconduct'. We therefore request the University and SU to exclude Veolia from bidding for campus contracts until such time as they have terminated all their business supporting Israel’s violations of international law. If Veolia is permitted to bid, the company's offer should be rejected on the grounds of failing the ethical misconduct clause. The University of Chichester is now in a position to send a strong message to companies that disregard international law, and we expect it to take full advantage of that power.