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1 Dec 2013

Report assesses financial institutions' responsibility to respect human rights: Case study on extractives

In December 2013, the Dutch Fair Bank Guide and the Dutch Fair Insurance Guide, as part of an initiative by Amnesty Netherlands, issued a report assessing the extent to which 16 financial institutions comply with the "responsibility to respect" human rights, as set out in the UN Guiding Principles, with regard to their investments.  A summary of the report is available here.

The report examines financial institutions' policies & practices towards 10 extractive companies associated with severe human rights abuses.  The extractive companies selected were Barrick Gold, Freeport-McMoran, Glencore Xstrata, Goldcorp, Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC), PetroChina/CNPC, Posco, Shell, Trafigura, and Vedanta Resources.

The report assesses whether the financial institutions "have made use of their influence on the companies’ behaviour with regard to human rights" and scores financial institutions based on their bank investments, insurance investments, and asset management.  The 16 financial institutions evaluated were ABN Amro, Achmea, Aegon, Allianz, APG, ASN Bank, ADR Nederland, Delta Lloyd, Generali, ING, Legal & General, NIBC, Rabobank, SNS Reaal, Triodos, and Van Lanschot.

Business & Human Rights Resource Centre invited the financial institutions with the lowest scores to respond:

ABN Amro response [DOC]
Allianz response [DOC]
APG (Loyalis) response [PDF]
Delta Lloyd response [DOC]
- Generali indicated it will respond next week - we will indicate here whether it responds
ING response [DOC]
Legal & General response [DOC]
- Rabobank has not yet responded - we will indicate here whether it responds

The following extractive companies were also invited to respond:

- CNPC has not yet responded - we will indicate here whether it responds (previous statement re Shwe pipeline allegations here.)
Glencore Xstrata response [PDF]
- ONGC response
Shell response [DOC]

The following extractive companies have issued previous statements regarding the allegations referred to in the report:

Barrick Gold statement [PDF]
Freeport McMoran statement [PDF]
Goldcorp statement [PDF]
Posco statement
Trafigura statement [DOC]
Vedanta statement [PDF]

Company Responses

ABN Amro View Response
Allianz View Response
Delta Lloyd Group View Response
Glencore View Response
Legal & General Investment Management View Response
Rabobank View Response
Shell plc View Response
ONGC (Oil & Natural Gas Corporation) View Response

Timeline