Human Rights and Investing

Linking Our Integrity and Our Power to Bring about Positive Change

Defining Integrity

- When what we are doing- What we are supposed to be doing- What we want to do

……all match

Core Question:

How do we know if what we are doingis what we are supposed to be doing?

Learning to Recognizethe Gift of Joy

Living with the Energy of Urgency

SRI - Socially Responsible InvestingTakes what we believe

Applies it to our investments

Takes what we believe

And allows it to expand our understanding of Human Rights

Declaration of Human RightsContains two major groups of issues:

Exotica: Those issues we hope no one ever has to deal with or encounter: torture, abuse, unlawful imprisonment, etc.

Economica: Those rights which affect the daily life of the person, the family and the community

Economica:Rights associated with daily life

Rights associated with income, the ability to support oneself and one’s family

Economica:Rights associated with food and nutrition

Rights associated with clothing and protection from the weather

Economica:Rights associated with education and access to

social systems

Rights associated with having a home, employment, and ability to earn enough for a decent standard of living

Violation of the EconomicaSuffering often equal to suffering resulting from

violations of the Exotica

Revealed in infant mortality rates, increased outbreaks of disease, lowered life expectancies, etc.

EconomicaKey issues are income and the resulting purchasing power

Economica allow persons, families ad communities - to have control over their lives,- to plan for the future

Without respect for the Economica

- The value of the person is only in his/her productivity

- Thus making the worker, a person, a mere extension of the machine

Socially Responsible Investing

Examines the policies, programs and practices of individual companies and industries

Through the Lens of Human Rights, especially the Economica

To Understand A Policy

A Program

A Practice

We Need to Ask: Who Benefits? Cui Bono?

Example: SustainabilityQuestion: Who Benefits?

Who is being sustained?

What is being sustained?

And who decides?

If companies have a sustainability program

Who and what are being sustained?

And who decides?

We need to ask for each company and each industry

So if companies have a human rights policy

Are the economica included and protected along with the exotica?

Are the workers, their families and their communities being sustained?

SRI- Is about being willing to ask questions

- Is about willing to work to find answers

What keeps us going in the workThe energy of urgency: the lives of real people and

families are impacted by our work

We are able to see beyond just ourselves

The joy of our work…knowing it is the right work to be doing

“The only thing required for the triumph of evil is for good men (and women) to do nothing”

Edmund Burke

“It is not required that we complete the task,

But neither are we free to abandon it

Pirkei Avot