The United Nation’s Environment Programme Finance Initiative (UNEP FI) has launched a human rights toolkit for financial institutions (FIs) to support the alignment of business practices with the UN’s Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGPs). The toolkit is organised according to three components of the corporate responsibility to respect human rights as described in the UNGPs: policy commitments, human rights due diligence, and access to remedy. Stakeholder engagement, which UNEP FI described as a “cross-cutting theme that is relevant to all aspects of the tool”, is addressed in an overarching section. The toolkit provides recommendations in relation to both FI “lending and investment activities”, as well as “own operations and consumer banking activities”. The guidance on key human rights due diligence topics are supplemented by sector-specific analyses of risks, opportunities, and actions, including for the Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, Infrastructure, Minerals and Metals Extraction, and Renewables sectors. While UNEP FI stated that the tool’s target audience is FIs, particularly corporate lenders and project financiers, the tool aims is intended to be useful for other relevant stakeholders, including investors, civil society, states, and national human rights institutions. The toolkit was financed and developed with the support of the European Investment Bank.
