Major banks, including Citibank and JPMorgan Chase, are still failing to implement the full scope of U.N. human rights principles, a new report has found. The report by finance watchdog BankTrack evaluated the policies and practices of 50 major banks and found that most are failing to implement adequate safeguards in line with the U.N. Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights. This is the fifth iteration of the international NGO’s benchmark series and, for the first time, banks were assessed against three new criteria from U.N. human rights declarations. These criteria consider policies and practices related to the rights of human rights defenders, Indigenous peoples’ rights to free, prior and informed consent (FPIC) and the human right to a healthy environment. On human rights defenders, 82% of all banks fail to mention human rights defenders and their specific rights. While 66% of banks mention FPIC in their policies, none have processes in place to ensure that clients and investee companies respect it where it is required. Only three banks — Banco Santander, ING and Bank of America — explicitly acknowledge that environmental rights are human rights in their statements of policy. Waorani leader Nemonte Nenquimo stands next to an oil spill near Shushufindi, in the Sucumbíos province, Ecuadorian Amazon, on June 26, 2023. Image by Sophie Pinchetti (Amazon Frontlines). “Indigenous Peoples face disproportionate risks from the activities banks finance, yet banks are failing to implement adequate safeguards in line with their responsibilities,” Giulia Barbos, a human rights researcher and…This article was originally published on Mongabay
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