Engagement: a tool for fostering change in respecting human rights – September 2021

Content:
The financial services sector plays a special role in driving sustainable change due to the leverage they have as lenders of business activities. This unique leverage carries with it heightened stakeholder expectations towards the financial sector’s responsibility to respect human rights.

In this study, we analyse how engagement by investors can be used as a meaningful tool for promoting and, ideally, ensuring respect for human rights by investee companies.

Specifically, this research intends to answer the following questions:

  • Can engagement be used as a tool for fostering change in the investee companies’ human rights impact management?
  • Which elements can contribute to making engagement meaningful?

This research was commissioned by ASN Bank.

Year: September 2021
Author: Claire Treinen, Raquel Althoff
Keywords: engagement, stewardship, human rights, ESG, responsible investment
Language: English