BankTrack
2019-06-25
Ryan Brightwell, Human Rights Campaign Coordinator: ryan@banktrack.org
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Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights: "All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights.". Photo: riacale/flickr. Original artwork from UN "human rights wall", Geneva.Update: the 2019 Human Rights Benchmark is available here.
BankTrack has written to 50 of the largest commercial banks around the world to give notice of its next human rights benchmark. In the coming months these 50 banks will be assessed on their implementation of the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGPs).
The UNGPs were unanimously endorsed by the UN Human Rights Council in June 2011 and provide the clearest expression yet of the international community’s expectations of the human rights responsibilities of business. The Human Rights Benchmark aims to put a spotlight on whether banks are fulfilling theses responsibilities and to encourage progress towards their full implementation with the aim of preventing and mitigating adverse impacts to people.
Banks will be assessed against 14 criteria across four categories assessing their human rights policies; due diligence processes; their reporting on human rights impacts; and approach to remedying adverse impacts. They will receive a full score (1), half score (0.5) or no score (0) for each category, leading to a total score of between 0 and 14.
The last time BankTrack produced the benchmark, in June 2016, over half of the 45 banks assessed were categorised as ‘laggards’, showing little or no evidence of conducting human rights due diligence. The report also highlighted eight banks as front runners, but identified several gaps that all banks were failing to address.
The 2019 update will expand the report’s geographic reach to include the largest banks in Africa, Russia and India. It will also include new criteria on whether banks report human rights indicators and whether they have a process in place to identify situations when they have caused or contributed to a human rights impact and have a responsibility to remedy the problem.
An overview of the assessment criteria and a list of the banks to be assessed is published here. The results will be published in November.
Bank representatives from these 50 banks that have not heard from us are invited to contact us.