Companies told to seek human rights commitment from Russia before Sochi Winter Olympics
A group of investors with $327 bn under management is pressuring companies sponsoring the upcoming Winter Olympic Games, including McDonald’s and Coca-Cola, to protest laws in Russia that target gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people.
The group, led by the New York State Common Retirement Fund, issued a letter to 10 key corporate sponsors of the 2014 Winter Olympics to be held in Sochi on Russia’s Black Sea coast, calling on Russian leaders to scrap recently enacted laws that ban gay pride rallies and penalize anybody who provides information about homosexuality to minors.
‘The Russian government’s discriminatory laws have cast a shadow over the Olympics,’ says Thomas DiNapoli, comptroller of the New York State pension system, in a press release. ‘We call upon these corporate sponsors to stand up for the respect and equality enshrined in the Olympic movement, advocate for human rights and confront abuses. Taking a stand against these prejudicial laws and policies is not just the right thing to do, it [also] protects shareholder interests and corporate reputations.’
The letter, which was signed by investors including Trillium Asset Management, First Affirmative Financial Network, Calvert Investments and Domini Social Investments, calls on sponsors to pressure Russia to rescind discriminatory laws, ensure their corporate policies fight discrimination and to obtain guarantees from Russia that the state will respect the human rights of all athletes in the games.
The letter, which was also sent to Atos, Dow Chemical, General Electric, Omega, Panasonic, Procter & Gamble, Samsung and Visa, warns sponsors that the Winter Olympics, set to start in February 2014, may mar their corporate reputations as sponsors.
‘As sponsorship and broadcast revenues finance more than 90 percent of the costs of the Olympic Games, there can be little doubt that the values of corporate sponsors are important to the International Olympic Committee and host countries,’ the letter states. ‘We believe strongly that the corporations in which we invest have the opportunity to ‒ and should ‒ confront the wrongs that result from Russia’s new laws.’
