Teaching Resources

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Banks and Human Rights

The following resources have been identified by teachers as particularly useful as classroom material, assigned readings, and research sources for the topic of Banks and Human Rights.

Readings
Primary Sources

The UN Guiding Principles and the OECD Guidelines are primary business and human rights frameworks. The OECD Common Approaches are more specific to banking, and has only short sections on human rights. The IFC Performance Standards are detailed, and rich in content related to corporate social responsibility generally. The IFC Performance Standards are also key to understanding the import of the Equator Principles.

  • Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights: Implementing the United Nations ‘Protect, Respect and Remedy’ Framework, Report of the Special Representative of the Secretary-General on the issue of human rights and transnational corporations and other business enterprises,” UN doc. A/HRC/17/31 (21 March 2011), available at http://www.ohchr.org/Documents/Publications/GuidingPrinciplesBusinessHR_EN.pdf.
  • The Equator Principles Implementation Note (2014).
Reports – NGOs

BankTrack is an advocacy NGO, but its work is respected and reliable. Amnesty International and Oxfam regularly produce pieces related to banks and human rights. The two examples below are particularly timely and relevant.

  • Amnesty International, A History of Neglect: UK Export Finance and Human Rights (June 2013).
  • BankTrack, Banking with Principles? Benchmarking Banks Against the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (June 2016).
  • BankTrack, Human Rights Impact Briefing #1: Labour Standards Violations in IOI Corporation’s Malaysian Plantations (2016).
  • BankTrack, Human Rights Impact Briefing #2: Drummond and Paramilitary Violence in Columbia (2016).
  • Karyn Keenan, The Halifax Initiative, Export Credit Agencies and the International Law of Human Rights (2008).
  • Karyn Keenan, Halifax Initiative, Export Credit Agencies and Human Rights Failure to Protect (2015).
  • Oxfam, The Suffering of Others: The human cost of the International Finance Corporation’s lending through financial intermediaries (2015).
Human Rights Complaints against Banks

While all of the following are rich sources, the on-going claims about the Aqua Zarca controversy include the allegation of the assassination of an internationally known human rights defender and the withdrawal of the development banks from the project. This was a continuing story at the time this Teaching Note was published and further information is expected to become available.

Agua Zarca Hydro-electric Project (Honduras)

  • Independent Fact Finding Mission, Report and Recommendations, Agua Zarca Hydroelectric Project (2016).
  • FMO Management Response to the Report and Recommendations of the Independent Fact Finding Mission on Agua Zarca (2016).

Barro Blanco Hydroelectric Project (Panama)

  • FMO-DEG Independent Complaints Mechanism, Barro Blanco Hydroelectric Project Panama (2015).
  • DEG and FMO Management Response to the Independent Expert Panel’s Compliance Review Report regarding the Complaint on the Investment in the Barro Blanco Hydroelectric Project (29 May 2015).
  • Independent Expert Panel for the Independent Complaints Mechanism of DEG and FMO, Monitoring of FMO’s and DEG’s response to the ICM Compliance Review of FMO’s and DEG’s joint investment in the Barro Blanco Hydroelectric Project in Panama (Case 14-002) (2016).
  • Independent Expert Panel for the Independent Complaints Mechanism of DEG and FMO, Monitoring of FMO’s and DEG’s response to the ICM Compliance Review of FMO’s and DEG’s joint investment in the Barro Blanco Hydroelectric Project in Panama (Case 14-002) (2016).
  • Independent Expert Panel for the Independent Complaints Mechanism of DEG and FMO, Monitoring of FMO’s and DEG’s response to the ICM Compliance Review of FMO’s and DEG’s joint investment in the Barro Blanco Hydroelectric Project in Panama (Case 14-002) (2016).

Buchanan Renewables (Liberia)

  • Accountability Counsel, Fueling Human Rights Disasters: An Examination of the U.S. Overseas Private Investment Corporation’s Investment in Buchanan Renewables (2014).
  • OPIC Office of Accountability, OA Review: Buchanan Renewable Energy Projects in Liberia (2014). 
Commentary

The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights responds to World Bank and IFC moves relevant to human rights issues. The piece below is one example. The ICAR position statement was sparked by the Aqua Zarca case referred to in the Human Rights Complaints against Banks section, above.

  • UN OHCHR, Frequently Asked Questions on Human Rights and Multilateral Development Banks (March 2016). (Annex I to OHCHR’s comments on the World Bank’s draft environmental and social framework).
  • Joanne Bauer, The Future Development Finance and Accountability Landscape, Workshop Summary and Outcomes. Columbia University (April 2016).
  • Mary Dowell-Jones and David Kinley, The Monster Under the Bed: Financial Services and the Ruggie Framework (September 26, 2011), in R. Mares, ed., THE UN GUIDING PRINCIPLES ON BUSINESS AND HUMAN RIGHTS: FOUNDATIONS AND IMPLEMENTATION (Brill: The Netherlands, 2012), pp. 193-216 (Sydney Law School Research Paper No. 11/61, available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1934021).
  • Mary Dowell-Jones and David Kinley, Minding the Gap: Global Finance and Human Rights, Ethics and International Affairs (25, no. 2) pp. 183-210.
  • Foley Hoag LLP and the UN Environmental Programme, Finance Initiative, Banks and Human Rights: A Legal Analysis (December 2015).
  • Claire Pendergrast and Ian Kysel, Multilateral Development Banks & Human Rights, Human Rights Institute at Georgetown Law (2014).

The Thun Group Debate

The 2017 pieces below should be read as a debate, with the Thun Group on one side and the rest on the other side.

2017

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This bibliography may be cited as:

Mark Wielga and John Richardson, “Teaching Resources for Banks and Human Rights,” in Teaching Business and Human Rights Handbook (Teaching Business and Human Rights Forum, 2017), https://teachbhr.org/resources/teaching-bhr-handbook/teaching-notes/banks-and-human-rights/teaching-resources/(opens in a new tab).