The Emerging Human Rights and Environmental Due Diligence Responsibility of Financial Institutions

Abstract

While the issue of corporate responsibility in global value chains for environmental harm or human rights abuses has been at the centre of discussions, the responsibility of financial institutions in the global value chain of money appears to be one of the new frontiers – and is probably one of the last bastions – of corporate accountability. This chapter intends to explore, in a more prospective manner, the different legal channels through which the responsibility of financial institutions may be incurred when their activities are linked to or generate adverse environmental and human rights impacts. In that regard, it is necessary: (i) to clarify the distinction between the respective obligations of public and of private financial institutions, (ii) to explore the growing importance of the due diligence paradigm for corporations in international law and to what extent it constitutes the ‘antechamber’ of litigation for financial institutions, (iii) to consider what this due diligence paradigm entails or could entail for financial institutions, and to consider the divergent interpretations it has so far received (from the financial sector, international organisations and NGOs) with regard to its implementation in practice.