Dutch banks and human rights violations

Mining companies and oil and gas producers run a high risk of getting involved in human rights abuses. Through such financing and investment activities, banks can become connected to negative human rights impacts in the extractive sectors. As outlined in the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGPs), banks should have ongoing due diligence processes in place to prevent, mitigate, and remediate human rights abuses they are directly linked to, have caused or contributed to.

For the Dutch Fair Bank Guide, we assessed how four Dutch banks deal with human rights risks in relation to their credit and investment relationships with extractive companies. The study indicates that, while these Dutch banks are committed to international human rights standards, none of them acts adequately in practice. Evidence that banks define specific and timebound goals, and systematically involve representatives of impacted rights-holders as part of their engagement with the selected companies is missing. Banks also do not provide sufficient information on how they try to use their leverage to influence the selected extractive companies to enable remediation for human rights abuses.