A group of 47 investors representing US$861 billion in AUM has a signed a statement in support of BankTrack’s 2022 Global Human Rights Benchmark. In the statement, coordinated by the Investor Alliance for Human Rights, the investors express concern regarding the human rights performance of banks as shown by the Benchmark’s findings, calling on banks to “raise the ambition and increase the pace” of implementation of the UN Guiding Principles, as the UN has called for in its Roadmap for the Next Decade. The Benchmark evaluated disclosures of 50 of the world’s largest banks against a set of 14 criteria covering four key areas of the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights. The investor statement comes as the EU begins the final stages of negotiations over the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive. The inclusion of the financial sector in the scope of the legislation has been a controversial issue, leading to the recent release of a statement by the UN Working Group on Business and Human Rights calling on policymakers to include the entire financial sector in its scope without creating “carveouts” or other exceptions.
NEW: Investors representing US$861 B in assets show support for the findings of @BankTrack’s 2022 Global Human Rights Benchmark, calling on banks to fully implement the #UNGPs. Read the full statement here: https://t.co/PbLepVX8bq pic.twitter.com/AxNRweYQjo
— InvestForRights (@InvestForRights) September 21, 2023
