Human Rights Due Diligence

The Human Rights Due Diligence process aims at defining a tool for mapping and assessing the priority areas of intervention, in order to prevent, mitigate and address the main human rights risks of violation, and identify the best mitigation and management procedures. The main potential risks of violation of human rights were assessed on the basis of typical direct country risk and business risk. Human Rights Due Diligence specifically focuses on company direct impact on human rights that could possibly affect our people, suppliers and clients.

Mergers & Acquisitions

Respect of human rights is part of the ESG criteria included in the M&A due diligence activities, especially in relation to acquisition transactions.


Mitigation and Remediation-Investments:

Companies involved in human rights violations are either: 

(i) excluded from the investment universe (so called "Restricted List" companies) if involved in severe violations - in addition to the block to new investments, any potential existing exposure is divested (equity) or run off (fixed income) 

(ii) strictly monitored and possibly engaged if presenting some poor ESG practices (so called "Watch List" companies).

We cover € 326 bln of our General Account investments (investments as asset owner - in particular direct investments) with exclusion policies. One of the pillars of our ESG exclusion policies is companies that are involved in human rights violations, according to the UN Global Compact Framework. Currently the Group excludes more than 600 companies from its investable universe due to various issues, 13 of which have been excluded due to issues relating to human rights violations.

For more information visit our page on Responsible Investments.