Investor group calls for banks to do more on human rights 

September 26th, 2023

Investors representing $861bn in assets under management have backed Dutch campaign group BankTrack’s 2022 Global Human Rights Benchmark and called on commercial banks to do more to implement human rights.

The Investor Alliance for Human Rights called on banks to take prompt action to strengthen policies and practices to respect human rights throughout their operations and value chain.

The latest BankTrack benchmark found 38 of 50 banks in the study are implementing less than half of the human rights expectations outlined by the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGPs).

The research also found progress on human rights disclosure stagnated, with all but eight banks falling short of reporting on specific human rights impacts.

The 2022 Benchmark evaluated the disclosures of 50 of the world’s largest banks against a set of 14 criteria covering four key areas of the Guiding Principles: policy commitment, human rights due diligence, reporting and access to remedy.

The benchmark also assessed how banks respond to specific cases of adverse human rights impacts raised by civil society groups.

While it found some progress had been made compared with its 2019 benchmark, the research showed just 28 of the assessed banks confirmed that their policy extends to the provision of finance, and only 17 demonstrated senior-level endorsement of policy commitments.

Anita Dorett, director of the Investor Alliance for Human Rights, said: “This statement and our partnership with BankTrack demonstrates how rigorous, evidence-based benchmarks grounded in international human rights frameworks such as the BankTrack Global Human Rights Benchmark can strengthen investors' analyses, proxy voting, and engagement strategies to ensure robust implementation of the UNGPs in the banking sector.”

The Network for Greening the Financial System (NGFS) also recently urged central banks and financial supervisors to build up their capabilities for assessing and managing risks posed to the financial sector by climate litigation.