Active Ownership
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Human Rights As responsible investors, we expect companies to comply with internationally recognised human rights principles and to prevent and manage their impact on human rights. Our expectations apply both to the investee companies themselves and to their supply chains. At NAM, we screen all of our holdings for breaches of international norms, identifying companies that are allegedly involved in breaches of international laws and norms on human rights and labour standards. Our 2023 target states that by the end of the year, investee companies in funds directly managed by Nordea Asset Management (NAM) will be assessed against the minimum safeguards in the area of human rights in line with the EU taxonomy. Improving Human Rights data During 2023 we have continued developing the process of assessing investee companies on their human rights performance through our norm-based screening, monitoring of Principal Adverse Impact indicators (PAIs) and by using other sources of information such as the Corporate Human Rights Benchmark. To address the limitations in regards to qualitative human rights data, we have also joined a collaborative investor engagement targeting data service providers and proxy advisors. We have also engaged with a number of companies on their human rights performance and disclosures and used our voting power when relevant. The application of Human Rights is large and with technological developments, digital rights have become a major topic for us. We are part of a collaborative engagement together with 65 other investors and representatives representing over USD 8.7 trillion in assets under management on the topic of digital rights. Information and communication technology companies have immense control over the lives and identities of their users and must commit to respecting freedom of expression and privacy on their platforms and services – such human rights in online environments are often referred to as digital rights. Companies’ implementation of that responsibility should align with the expectations outlined in the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights and the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises. The Corporate Human Rights Benchmark (CHRB) measures the human rights performance of the world’s largest publicly listed companies in sectors with high human rights risk. At NAM, we integrate the CHRB assessment results into our ESG analysis and ownership activities. This information enables us to assess the effectiveness of a company’s human rights risk management and track progress. Against the background of new regulatory initiatives requiring investors to demonstrate that their investments do no significant harm, this becomes ever more important. In November, the 2023 CHRB assessment was launched, covering 110 companies in the apparel retail and extractives sector. Since 2017, NAM has been a part of a collaborative engagement targeting companies that score zero on human rights due diligence in the CHRB.
Some of our Human Rights engagement initiatives
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