Foley Hoag LLP and UNEP FI collaborated on a research paper offering a legal analysis of the current banking and human rights landscape. The paper provides an overview of the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, and explores their implications for the banking sector. It examines both hard law and soft law related to banking and human rights, as well as the relationship between the two. The paper contributes to wider thinking on how banks can address human rights issues.

Further developments with regard to the UN Guiding Principles implications for the banking sector

In January 2017, the Thun Group of Banks released, and invited comments on, a second Discussion Paper, focusing on Principles 13 and 17 of the UN Guiding Principles in the context of corporate and investment banking. The paper and responses, including from the UN Working Group on Business and Human Rights and Professor John Ruggie, Architect of the UN Guiding Principles, can be found here.