The Investor Alliance for Human Rights (IAHR) was launched in 2018 as an initiative of the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility (ICCR), in order to provide institutional investors with a dedicated platform to increase their capacity and impact in addressing human rights risks associated with business activities. Founded in 1971, ICCR is a coalition of shareholder organisations that engage corporations on social and environmental impacts.

Their membership is currently comprised of nearly 170 institutional investors, including asset management firms, trade union funds, public pension funds, foundations, endowments, faith-based organisations, and family funds. Our members currently represent over US$4 trillion in assets under management and 19 countries.

In 2020, the IAHR published a new Investor Toolkit on Human Rights (with Executive Summary) for asset owners and managers to address risks to people posed by their investments. The expectation that investors, like all business actors, respect human rights is outlined by the UN Guiding Principles on Business in Human Rights, unanimously endorsed by governments in the UN Human Rights Council in 2011.

IAHR’s corporate engagements activate a broad base of investors to address business and human rights challenges in close coordination with civil society, trade unions, national human rights institutions, and community-led organisations. This ensures that their engagements are informed by and coordinated with organisations that have the tools, networks, and expertise necessary to help maximise investor impact.

IAHR is also involved in standard setting activities that may relate to recent or upcoming changes to law, regulation, policy, or remedial mechanisms. These standard setting actions are coordinated with key civil society allies and other strategic partners. They may target governments, international or regional organisations, multi-lateral organisations, or industry associations.

Along with civil society allies, our team equips the investment community with expertise and opportunities to put the investor responsibility to respect human rights into practice. We do this by:

1. Providing practical tools for implementation of responsible business standards at each step of the investment lifecycle;
2. Supporting direct engagement with portfolio companies on their own human rights practices; and
3. Coordinating actions that ask policy makers and standard-setting bodies to create level playing fields for responsible business.

They are a membership-based non-profit initiative.