Investor Briefing: Integrating Human Rights within Financial Decision-Making
On Tuesday, May 20th, at 10am ET / 3pm UK / 4pm CET, the Investor Alliance for Human Rights, in collaboration with the Geneva Center for Business and Human Rights and Finance & Human Rights, will host an investor briefing exploring how financial institutions are integrating human rights into their core business practices.
The webinar will feature a new publication by the Geneva Center for Business and Human Rights and Finance & Human Rights representing the latest iteration of a longitudinal study conducted since 2020 that identifies key trends, persistent challenges, and opportunities concerning the current state of human rights integration within financial decision-making in Europe.
Key findings of the study include that while financial institutions increasingly recognize their impact on human rights, they often lack systematic structures and incentives to address human rights proactively, effectively implement human rights due diligence, and measure impacts. The lack of standardized, reliable human rights data on investee companies remains a critical challenge for financial institutions. This study offers recommendations for investors, industry leaders, policymakers, and other stakeholders committed to advancing sustainable finance.
Through this event, the Investor Alliance, the Geneva Center for Business and Human Rights, Finance & Human Rights, and guest speakers from the financial industry aim to support investors in:
- Understanding the main insights of the study and recommendations to strengthen internal human rights management capacity, increase leverage over investee companies, improve standards and data, and engage a wider range of stakeholder to strengthen human rights in finance.
- Gaining knowledge of concrete approaches and key challenges to systematically embedding human rights into financial decision-making.
- Reflecting on the role, opportunities, and limitations of policy and legislation in the EU and U.S. as well as existing industry standards in creating an enabling environment for financial institutions to integrate human rights into their core business activities.
Speakers include:
- Amanda Zillig, Global Human Rights Lead, ING Bank
- Amy Carr, Shareholder Advocate, Friends Fiduciary
- Berit Knaak, Senior Research Associate, Geneva Center for Business and Human Rights
- Charles Muller, Chair, Finance & Human Rights
- Dorothée Baumann-Pauly, Director, Geneva Center for Business and Human Rights
- Rebecca DeWinter-Schmitt, Associate Director, Investor Alliance for Human Rights
For a deeper dive into the report’s findings and to explore actionable steps for financial institutions and other stakeholders to drive meaningful impact in embedding human rights in financial decision making, you can access the full study here. Previous iterations of the study are linked here.
You can register for this free event here.