#Banks and financial institutions profiting from #weapons

By Clare Carlile
Friday 7th of April 2023

High street banks are funding some of the world’s most notorious #ArmsCompanies. We look at which banks are involved and what consumers can do. We also look at the wider financial industry and its links with #NuclearWeapons in particular.

How are banks financing the arms industry?

"Banks are behind almost every industry in the world, through their loans, insurance and other kinds of financing, including the arms industry.

"By funding arms companies, banks allow them to grow and innovate – developing new forms of #lethal weapons.

"In fact, banks are behind companies involved in the very worst forms of arms, such as nuclear weapons and #ClusterMunitions, despite the latter being banned by 120 countries.

"Unsurprisingly, arms companies are not generally picky about who they sell weapons to. This means that if a bank is funding an arms company, it may well be one that is selling to oppressive regimes.

Which banks are involved in financing arms companies?

"Unfortunately, many banks still finance arms companies.

"While some have said they will not fund the most destructive weapons, lots fall far short of refusing funding to arms companies altogether. And it is not just banks that are involved in the global arms trade. Lots of other financial institutions, such as investors, are also involved.

"Over three quarters of the brands included in our ethical current accounts guide lost half a mark under Arms & Military supply for their investments. This included all the five major high street banks: #Barclays, #HSBC, #Lloyds, #NatWest and #Santander.

"Banks such as Barclays, Lloyds, NatWest, Santander and #Citigroup, and other financial institutions such as #Aviva and #OldMutual have been named in relation to funding cluster munitions, nuclear weapons on the sale of arms to #Yemen.

What weapons are banks funding?
Banks funding cluster munitions

“Cluster munitions are indiscriminate weapons that pose a serious threat to civilian populations during and long after an attack. They spread dozens, or even hundreds, of bomblets called submunitions over an area the size of a football stadium or even more. On impact cluster munitions kill or maim anyone that is in that area. Also, many submunitions fail to explode on impact: they remain on the ground like landmines that kill and injure civilians long after the conflict has ended.'

"120 countries have signed a Convention that that bans the use, production, stockpiling and transfer of #ClusterBombs.

"Yet, in 2018, the Cluster Munition Coalition found that financial institutions had invested almost $9 billion in companies producing cluster munitions. Citigroup and Old Mutual were both found to invest in companies involved.

"Amongst the banks named in the report, Triodos, Co-operative Bank and Royal Bank of Scotland were all praised for having divestment policies in place.

"However, Aviva, Axa, Deutsche Bank, Edentree Investment Management, HSBC, Lloyds Banking Group, Bank of Scotland and Standard Chartered were all found to have incomplete policies in place."

https://www.ethicalconsumer.org/money-finance/banks-weapons

Protecting #Activists from #AbusiveLitigation

#SLAPPs in the #GlobalSouth and How to Respond

PUBLISHED: JULY 2020

"In #Thailand, an agricultural company files more than a dozen suits against at least 20 #defendants, targeting #workers, #journalists, and #activists who had spoken out against alleged #LaborAbuses at the company’s chicken farm. In #India, an association of #pesticide manufacturers brings a civil defamation suit against #journalists that had reported on the harmful #health and #environmental effects of pesticide use. In the #Philippines, a #mining company files suit against 85 defendants who had conducted a #PeacefulProtest near the company’s mining site, after the company’s own security forces used #lethal violence against the #protesters. In #SouthAfrica, an #Australian mining company files suit against environmental activists who had criticized a company mine during a lecture at a local university.

What do these suits have in common? They are all “#SLAPPs,” or “Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation”: suits filed not to secure relief, but to use the risks and costs of litigation to defuse criticism and opposition and discourage the exercise of fundamental freedoms. SLAPPs have long been prevalent in the #Globa North, but SLAPPs are also being used in the Global South to silence activism.

"In Protecting Activists from Abusive Litigation: SLAPPs in the Global South and How to Respond, ICNL presents the first cross-regional survey of SLAPPs in the Global South, along with the first rigorous comparative analysis of anti-SLAPP policy responses undertaken in the Global North and the Global South. Our survey shows that SLAPPs pose a serious threat to the exercise of fundamental freedoms in the Global South, particularly for activists, civil society organizations, journalists, and community members who dare to criticize powerful entities.

"Our survey, which is far from comprehensive, has identified 82 reported SLAPPs filed in Thailand, India, the Philippines, and South Africa – the most fertile fields for Southern SLAPPs – as well as #Indonesia, #Malaysia, #Armenia, #SierraLeone, and #Honduras. Key features of SLAPPs in our sample include:

- Half of the cases in our sample (41 cases) involved criminal proceedings.
- The most frequent SLAPP targets in our sample were activists and civil society organizations (CSOs) (38 cases, or 46%); journalists and publishers (17 cases, or 21%); and leaders and members of local communities (15 cases, or 18%).
- Nearly all of the cases in our sample – 75 cases, or 91% – were brought by private companies or company officials, with 34 of these cases (41%) brought by mining companies and 28 cases (34%) brought by companies associated with agricultural operations.

"Where the cause of action or charge was reported, the suit was based at least in part on a defamation charge, either civil or criminal, in 66 of 75 cases (88%).

"Of the 33 suits in our sample brought as civil actions, claims in 17 cases (52%) exceeded 1 million USD, with the average claim exceeding 10 million USD."

Full article:

https://www.icnl.org/post/report/slapps-in-the-global-south-report