Urgent Action: Summit of public development banks should hear from human rights defenders

Public developments banks – such as Export Development Canada and its wholly owned subsidiary FinDev Canada – will gather on November 9-12 both virtually and in person in Paris for what is being called the Finance in Common Summit.

The United Nations Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders recently noted with concern the absence of any explicit mention of human rights in the agenda of the summit and encouraged its organizers to create a space for civil society, human rights defenders and affected communities to meaningful participate in it.

Others have previously also called on Export Development Canada to deny support to corporations with a record of human rights violations, including violations of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

Please join us in asking Mary Ng, the federal minister responsible for Export Development Canada, to call on summit organizers to make space for voices at risk, the human rights defenders affected by the policies of public development banks.