About | Mentor | Paul Millar

Paul Millar

Australian lawyer with a background in international human rights, interested in how investors can consider human rights based on international law and, for which,  I devised a model in a PhD.

PROFILE

I am an Australian lawyer with over 20 years’ experience in refugee status determination.  This involves deciding whether an asylum seeker will suffer violations of international human rights laws.  It requires knowledge of those laws and human rights practices around the world.   I did this work for UNHCR, the UN refugee agency, in Hong Kong, Malaysia, South Africa and Romania.  I also did this work on appellate tribunals in New Zealand and Australia.  I hold a Master of International and Comparative Law degree from Georgetown University Law Centre, Washington DC.

Some years ago, I discovered that investors were advocating responsible, ethical or sustainable investment, all of which encompassed human rights to varying degrees.  This led me to undertake a PhD and devise a model for how investors could have corporations do business that does not harm people.  The model is based on the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights and investors who use it will be assisted by the resources available through Altiorem.

RECENTLY REVIEWED BY PAUL MILLAR

Artificial intelligence solutions to support environmental, social, and governance integration in emerging markets

This report examines the use of artificial intelligence technologies to analyse environmental, social and governance ("ESG") data for investments in emerging markets. It gives a detailed account of an experiment conducted to determine the effectiveness of such technologies in analysing the ESG performance of emerging markets issuers.
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Global ESG disclosure standards for investment products

1 November 2021
This report presents the “Global ESG disclosure standards for investment products” developed by the CFA Institute to facilitate fair representation and full disclosure by investment managers in relation to how environmental, social and governance (“ESG”) issues are considered in an investment product’s objectives, investment process or stewardship activities.
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ESG 2.0: Measuring and managing investor risks beyond the enterprise-level

This paper discusses how current institutional investing practices and asset allocation strategies conflict with ESG objectives. It encourages institutional investors to review their systematic risk-management practices and recommends the diversification of asset allocation to more regenerative investment structures and asset classes.
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Global microscope 2020: The role of financial inclusion in the COVID-19 response

This report is a study of the enabling environment for financial inclusion in 55 low to middle income countries. It focuses on the role of financial inclusion in terms of how governments in those countries responded to the COVID-19 pandemic.
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Mental health and employers: Refreshing the case for investment

This report analyses the impact of mental health in the workplace. It examines the increasing prevalence and costs to employers of poor mental health among their employees, the actual mental health issues arising and their causes, as well as interventions employers can take and which provide financial return.
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Investor toolkit: An investor focus on Indigenous Peoples' rights and cultural heritage protection

This toolkit guides investors on how to assess a company’s relationship with Indigenous stakeholders and its respect for their cultural heritage. The toolkit explains the impact of those issues on long-term financial value before providing detailed guidance on what investors should look for in a company's disclosure and engagement practices.
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The carbon boomerang: Litigation risk as a driver and consequence of the energy transition

This report discusses and identifies climate change related litigation risks as drivers and consequences of an energy transition. It presents a taxonomy of those risks and analyses them in the broader context of the financial risk associated with them.
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Macroeconomic and financial policies for climate change mitigation: A review of the literature

30 September 2019
This research is a review of literature on the use of macroeconomic and financial policy tools for mitigating the impact of climate change. The paper explores the effectiveness of fiscal, financial and monetary policy instruments for such mitigation which it considers to be the transition to a low carbon economy.
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Inclusive business: What it is and why it matters

This report examines the concept of inclusive business as a means of enabling disadvantaged populations to participate in economic activity and share economic value. The report provides a comprehensive discussion of what an inclusive business initiative comprises and contains examples showing how they address social challenges.
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How ESG issues become financially material to corporations and their investors

4 November 2020
This working paper advances a framework that illustrates how environment, social and governance (‘ESG’) issues become financially material and impact on company and industry valuation. The framework comprises five stages of the pathways to materiality.
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The future of tobacco stocks: a scenario analysis

This report identifies drivers of change within the tobacco industry and the potential risk factors that may arise as a result. The report conducts a scenario analysis that maps out three potential outcomes for the industry and the relative impact on the share price of the world’s largest tobacco companies.
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RECENTLY PUBLISHED BY PAUL MILLAR

Global progress report of the Sustainable Banking Network: Innovations in policy and industry actions in emerging markets - October 2019

This report discusses progress made by emerging market financial sector regulatory agencies and the financial institutions they supervise, with respect to the advancement of sustainable finance in those markets. The report identifies key components for a national sustainable financial framework and the steps needed to implement it in emerging markets.
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