A report from the Church Commissioners for England has requested that companies provide better human rights data and that investors “systematically integrate” it into their investment and stewardship activities. The organisation said it expects investee firms to respect human rights as a foundation for ethical and responsible business conduct. However, it noted “significant gaps” in the current availability of company human rights data in terms of specificity and scale. It added that service providers were “reluctant to provide similar bespoke offerings” for data on executive remuneration and board composition. The Church Commissioners confirmed it would further integrate human rights data into their voting and further pursue efforts to create best practice around the use of human rights data in investor stewardship. It will do so through its ESG data provider and proxy advisor engagements this year, part of a collaborative investor initiative alongside Aviva Investors and Scottish Widows. “Social inequality presents a systemic risk to economies and diversified portfolios,” said Dan Neale, Church Commissioners’ Social Lead. “Companies can best understand and address their links to inequalities by meeting their responsibility to respect human rights.”
