2018 United Nations Forum on Business and Human Rights

Interpretation is provided in English and Spanish

Brief description of the presentation:
Civil society organizations (CSO) working to defend communities in the face of corporate human rights harms are fast becoming attuned to the role that institutional investors and corporate lenders play in incentivizing good corporate conduct. At the same time, we are witnessing a sea change in the way in which investors consider environmental, social and governance (ESG) risk. After years of debate over whether ESG investment pays, increasingly institutional investors are concluding that it does. These developments mark a critical moment in the effort to improve corporate human rights conduct. The next step is to strengthen communications and collaboration between civil society organizations and financial actors so that financial risks can be accurately identified and addressed.

Presentation objectives:
This snapshot will present the case for a CSO-Investor Dialogue Table, scheduled to start in early 2019. The purpose of the Dialogue Table is to build trust between financial professionals and human rights advocates in order to produce effective collaboration on human rights. For CSOs, the Dialogue Table is an opportunity to present the perspective of the victims of human rights violations and explain what they believe financial professionals need to do in order to prevent, mitigate and remediate those violations. For investors, it will be an opportunity to demystify civil society concerns in a safe setting, jointly develop solutions and to take appropriate measures to prevent human rights risks