Human rights case studies

In 2021, we will be focussing on promoting understanding of human rights in the investment process and raising awareness of the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (‘UNGPs’), and the OECD’s guidelines on the topic. This focus derives from our position paper on Why and how investors should act on human rights, which clarifies an investors’ responsibility to respect human rights.

The work PRI is going to undertake aims to:

• Support institutional investors with their implementation of the UNGPs through knowledge-sharing, examples and other practical materials;
• Increase accountability among signatories, by introducing human rights questions into the PRI Reporting Framework – initially on a voluntary basis;
• Facilitate investor collaboration to address industry challenges to implementing respect for human rights;
• Promote policy measures that enable investors and investees to manage human rights issues;
• Drive meaningful data that allows investors to manage risks to people.

As the UNGPs specify that investors and companies have a responsibility to respect all internationally recognised human rights, we are looking for examples of institutional investors who consider the broad spectrum of issues in their organisations, governance and investment process. Additionally, we are interested in specific in-depth examples of human rights approaches that specifically tackle decent work issues and diversity, equity and inclusion.

We are seeking case studies that illustrate leading practice in the implementation of human rights policies, materiality, due diligence, and the provision of remediation across asset classes.

The case study could include any of the following:

• Implementation of UNGPs by asset owners – policy and strategy, governance systems and resourcing, materiality, risk and impact assessments, prioritisation approaches, selection, appointment and monitoring of external managers and investment consultants, enabling access to remedy, stakeholder engagement and communication to beneficiaries
• Implementation of UNGPs across asset classes (listed equity, fixed income, private equity and infrastructure investments) – human rights policy and governance, materiality, identification of human rights issues, information sources, prioritisation methodologies, tracking of actions and results, stakeholder engagement, use of leverage to mitigate harm, reporting to clients, beneficiaries and public, access to remedy

Criteria for case studies

All case studies should:

• be between 750 and 1,000 words (excluding diagrams and tables);
• contain the following elements;
  • author name, organisation name, investor type/specialism, region of operation;
  • assets under management figures;
  • focus on a single aspect, defined above;
  • include details of specific sectors and regions;
  • contain data, graphs and illustrations in place of descriptive text where possible;
  • avoid undue promotion by the author of their organisation or funds and generalised descriptions of the RI processes described.

The PRI greatly appreciates the time and effort going into case study submissions and look forward to receiving examples of best practice on human rights. To ensure quality of content, we reserve the right to review each case study to ensure that the supplied material meets the criteria defined above.

The PRI will edit draft case studies to ensure the language, structure and design:

• communicate their message effectively to a wide audience;
• are consistent with the rest of the case studies in the series;
• are in keeping with the general spirit of the six Principles and the responsibility to respect human rights as set out in the UNGPs.

If you’d like to submit case studies or have any questions to the process, please reach out to Marco Longhini at marco.longhini@unpri.org.

Submission deadline: Friday, 25^th June 2021