Library | ESG issues
Human Rights
Human rights are the basic freedoms and protections every person holds regardless of nationality, status or circumstance. For financial institutions the central reference is the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, which set out a responsibility to respect those rights through due diligence across operations, supply chains and investment portfolios. Adverse impacts such as forced labour, displacement of communities and unsafe working conditions carry legal, reputational and financial consequences, and increasingly fall within mandatory due diligence law.
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Mindful Money Impact Tool
The Mindful Money Impact Tool provides transparency for New Zealand investors, allowing them to check fund holdings and filter for ethical criteria such as climate friendliness and human rights. It is a key resource for ESG analysis and values-aligned portfolio management.
Transition minerals in Eastern Europe and Central Asia
A tracker from the Business and Human Rights Resource Centre monitoring environmental and human rights allegations linked to 20 critical transition minerals across 16 countries in Eastern Europe and Central Asia.
Data centers and social impacts: What matters for financial institutions / Financial Institutions Practitioners Circle
This report examines the social impacts of AI-driven data centre expansion. It identifies five key challenges for financial institutions, including community opposition and developer unfamiliarity with international standards. The research provides practical insights for banks to integrate social due diligence and leverage influence to improve project outcomes.
Modern approaches to modern slavery: Addressing risks and impacts in investor portfolios
This research examines how investors can move beyond policy-based assessments to identify modern slavery risks. It introduces Schroders' risk model and Shift's business model red flags to address structural vulnerabilities and supply chain opacity, helping investors protect long-term value through targeted engagement and improved data disclosure.
Collective power: The struggle for protection for land and environmental defenders
Global Witness reports that 124 land and environmental defenders were killed in 2025, bringing the total since 2012 to 2,375. Colombia remains the deadliest country. The report advocates for collective protection mechanisms and highlights the criminalisation of Indigenous communities resisting land grabs in Peru and Indonesia.
Decent work in the platform economy must include outsourced and migrant workers
This Equidem briefing highlights how platform companies use outsourcing and algorithmic management to evade labour responsibilities. It calls for international standards to include migrant workers and subcontractors, addressing issues like recruitment debt, opaque management, and fragmented accountability across digital supply chains in regions including the Gulf and the Philippines.
The state of domestic work in 2025: 15 years after Convention No. 189
This International Labour Organization report examines global domestic work trends for 2025. With 80 million workers, the sector remains 83.1 per cent informal. Key findings highlight significant wage gaps, gender disparities, and extreme working hours, underscoring the need for formalisation and improved labour protections to achieve decent work.
Investor expectations of companies on deforestation
This report details investor expectations for companies to eliminate deforestation and associated human rights risks. Using a five-pillar framework—Commit, Assess, Transform, Engage, and Disclose—it aims to mitigate material financial risks while building supply chain resilience and supporting international climate and biodiversity targets by 2030.
SIPRI Arms Transfers Database
The SIPRI Arms Transfers Database tracks international transfers of major conventional weapons from 1950 to the present. It helps finance professionals assess geopolitical risk and monitor the global defence market through consistent data on arms flows and procurement.
Pure dynamite: How Bolsonaro’s government (2019-2022) mineral policy set up a climate and anti-indigenous bomb
This report analyses Brazil's mineral policy under the Bolsonaro administration from 2019 to 2022. It details how deregulation, lobbying, and legislative changes facilitated industrial and illegal mining, leading to environmental degradation and human rights violations. It provides a timeline of events and suggests measures for policy reform.
TRF Insights: Rising pressure, rising needs: A TrustLaw rapid member survey
This report examines the evolving legal needs of civil society organisations globally. Based on a rapid survey of TrustLaw members, it assesses the impact of funding cuts and restrictive regulations on non-profits and social enterprises, highlighting the growing demand for pro bono legal support.
Poverty and Inequality Platform
The Poverty and Inequality Platform is a World Bank tool providing interactive global data on poverty rates and income distribution. It offers harmonised datasets and inequality metrics essential for ESG analysis and emerging market risk assessment.
Global Internal Displacement Database
The Global Internal Displacement Database provides validated data on people displaced by conflict and disasters worldwide, assisting in the assessment of sovereign risk and social stability.
Forests & Finance Coalition
Forests & Finance is a database tracking billions in capital flows to forest-risk commodity companies. It provides transparency on financial links to deforestation and human rights risks.
Mining and money: Financial faultlines in the energy transition
This report highlights how global finance enables destructive transition mineral mining. Between 2016 and 2024, banks provided USD 493 billion in credit despite weak ESG policies. Case studies in Indonesia, Brazil, DRC, and Australia reveal widespread environmental damage and human rights abuses, necessitating urgent regulatory and institutional reform.
FPIC-360° Tool
The FPIC-360° Tool, developed by Equitable Origin, is a digital platform designed to facilitate and monitor Free, Prior, and Informed Consent (FPIC) processes. It helps developers and investors manage Indigenous rights-based engagement and mitigate social risks in energy and infrastructure projects.
