2019 UN Forum on Business and Human Rights

Session organized by the Investor Alliance for Human Rights, ICCR, the UN Principles for Responsible Investment and Global Witness

Webcast of the session:
Meeting link
Meeting number: 841 119 422
Password: Fy2ggiUD

Financial systems have the potential to promote respect for human rights and contribute to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Yet, doing so requires that institutional investors—from public pensions and trade union funds to asset managers, foundations, and family funds—consider human rights throughout their institutional governance and throughout the investment lifecycle. This requires that investors conduct human rights due diligence as part of their own activities, and it is imperative that governments adopt a “smart mix” of measures that strengthen regulation, improve policy coherence, and showcase how public financial institutions can lead by example in this area.

While the European Parliament has recently taken a monumental step in this regard, and while human rights due diligence has been outlined by the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGPs), integrated as a key feature of the OECD Guidelines on Multinational Enterprises, and unpacked for institutional investors in the OECD guidance document Responsible Business Conduct for Institutional Investors, significant gaps remain in clarifying what the implementation of the responsibility to respect human rights looks like for investors and how investors can be held accountable by States and others for adverse impacts.

This session’s objective will be to unpack how governments can most effectively contribute to filling these gaps. It will aim to achieve this objective through collaborative dialogue with participants.