April 18, 2023: A new Toolkit ‘Respecting Indigenous Rights: An Actionable Toolkit for Institutional Investors’ has identified SIGWATCH as a particularly useful source of data for investors looking to identify the impacts of business operations on Indigenous peoples.
Published with the support of Amazon Watch and built in collaboration with NGOs, human rights specialists, investors and others; the toolkit looks to fill a current lacuna in investing practice and institutional responsibility concerning the rights of Indigenous peoples across the world, and is intended to be a “guide for pension funds, asset managers, and other institutional investors”.
Lead author, member of the Kichwa people of Sarayaku, and sustainable finance specialist Emil Sirén Gualinga claims that “most standards and guidance on social or environmental matters used by investors rarely address Indigenous rights”, making this Toolkit a much-needed mechanism to ensure that the growing network of international human rights instruments and private sector standards on Indigenous rights are properly implemented.
SIGWATCH is proud to contribute to the information database and discourse around Indigenous rights through consistent monitoring of NGO activity around issues such as rights abuses linked to business activity, unethical sourcing practices and labour violations along the supply chain.
Charlotte Moore, SIGWATCH’s head of research says, “Indigenous rights due diligence continues to be something of a blind spot for investors and multinational companies, despite increasing awareness around the impacts of business operations, climate change, and even climate solutions on Indigenous communities. We hope that the data we provide on activist campaigning can help to bridge this knowledge gap.”
The Toolkit will undoubtedly be a valuable resource for the private and public sector to strengthen policy around Indigenous rights and by extension, the interconnected issues of climate change, biodiversity loss and financial risk management.
