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Article

1 Aug 2017

Author:
Gabriela Schwarz, University of Zurich, Centre for Human Rights Studies

Report of the Thun Group of Banks' annual meeting

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More than 80 representatives of banks, civil society, governments, international governmental organizations, academia, law and consulting firms plus other business enterprises gathered in Thun on 19 June 2017 for the Thun Group of Banks Annual Meeting. The aim of the meeting was i) to share knowledge on crucial developments around business and human rights with a focus on the banking sector and ii) to discuss the Thun Group's January 2017 publication titled "Discussion Paper on the Implications of UN Guiding Principles 13 and 17 in a Corporate and Investment Banking Context"... The most intensely debated issue concerned the three categories of potential business involvement in human rights harm (cause, contribute, directly linked) and... whether banks can, in principle, cause or contribute to human rights harm outside the realm of employee-related (or purely internal) matters... The bank representatives acknowledged the possibility of contribution to human rights harm through own activities... though they considered these as rare when providing financial products & services... Based on the outcomes of the panel discussions, the Thun Group agreed to clarify some of the statements in the 2017 Discussion Paper that had led to misunderstandings... [and] further recognized the need to make appropriate reference to the requirement of the UNGPs to review risks to rights-holders when providing financial services to corporate clients.

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