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REGULATING THE SOCIAL IMPACTS OF SPECULATIVE FINANCIAL PRACTICES

Meeting sponsored by the Essex Business and Human Rights Project and the Law Society of England and Wales

18 May 2011, 7-9 PM
The Law Society’s Hall – 113 Chancery Lane – London

The world’s attention on the link between Human Rights and Business has turned to the finance sector. Principles developed by John Ruggie, UN Special Representative on Transnational Corporations and Human Rights, can potentially apply to the impacts of financial activity. What influence might this have on speculative practices designed to manage risk, and how might the social impacts of that activity be assessed?

The aim of this meeting is to encourage discussion of the issues with the audience, for which ample time at the session will be provided

1830-1900 Arrival and registration

1900-2100 Roundtable discussion

Chairs: Tony Fisher, Chair of the Human Rights Committee of the Law Society and Professor Sheldon Leader, Director of the Essex and Human Rights Project

Speakers introducing themes for discussion:

- Dr. Mary Dowell-Jones, University of Nottingham: ‘The challenge of linking human rights and speculative practices designed to manage financial risk’
- Professor Neil Kellard, University of Essex: ‘The consequences of commodity trading in food’

2100 – 2200 Reception

Registration Details

There is no charge for attendance. To assist in planning we need an indication of your intention to attend this meeting by 5pm May 2nd, 2011 to ebhr@essex.ac.uk For those who indicate their intention to attend, a packet with background reading on the issues to be discussed will be provided

SUMMARY OF OPENING STATEMENTS:

Dr. Mary Dowell-Jones, University of Nottingham, will argue that once one ventures into the specialised aspects of international finance – which make up the bulk of financial activity – there is no straightforward way of applying classic human rights methodology that requires reasonably direct traceability of harm from actor to human rights victim. The profile of systemic risk across the financial markets at any given point is dynamic, conditional on the activities of millions of actors spread throughout the system, and very difficult to disentangle. We need to start developing a conceptual work which will map an understanding of human rights values into technical aspects of finance so that we can demonstrate how risk management or capital adequacy, for example, are relevant to human rights and how that relevance may change the way these practices are structured.

Professor Neil Kellard, University of Essex, will consider the principles structuring commodity trading in food, and their impacts. Recent episodes of high and volatile prices for commodities such as wheat, maize and rice have pushed many vulnerable groups into extreme hunger. These commodities have become an asset class included in the portfolio of many institutional investors and traded by hedge funds. This talk examines whether speculative behavior in derivative markets has contributed towards higher and more volatile prices for key commodities. Even when a causal link is difficult to trace, it could be argued the financial community should show that the use of these instruments does not violate the concept of primum non nocere.

From the BBC: Nigerian police killing at will, says Amnesty

Nigerian police are carrying out a shocking level of extrajudicial killings and enforced disappearances, Amnesty International says.

The rights group’s three-year inquiry details cases of prisoners tortured to death and shootings at roadblocks.

Amnesty says the police complain they are poorly trained and that criminals are often better armed than they are.

On Tuesday, a hospital in Enugu told the BBC it was overwhelmed by bodies being brought to them by police.

The BBC visited the hospital’s morgue in the south-eastern city and took photographs, showing piles young men, lying on top of one another and strewn about on tables and floors.

It was established that at least seven people were last seen alive in police custody, accused of kidnapping.

Enugu State police commissioner Mohamed Zarewa told the BBC he was too busy to talk about their cases.

‘Brutalised’

“The Nigerian police are responsible for hundreds of unlawful killings every year,” said Erwin van der Borght, director of Amnesty International’s Africa programme, said in a statement.

“The majority of the cases go uninvestigated and the police officers responsible go unpunished.

“The families of the victims usually get no justice or redress. Most never even find out what happened to their loved ones.”

A corrupt police culture, little training or competence with firearms, and the legacy of Nigeria’s military era are all contributing factors, the report says.

Nigerian human rights lawyer, Femi Falana, believes police officers are being brutalised by their training regime.

“Police are not trained to respect human beings. They are not taught about human rights of citizens and other people in Nigeria,” he says.

“They are not taught that they have a duty to prevent and arrest criminality in the society.”

Justification

The Amnesty report’s authors are demanding an end to a culture of impunity.

They say police guidelines called Force Order 237 – allowing police to fire on civilians fleeing arrest for serious crimes – must be changed.

Amnesty says the order justifies firing on anyone resisting arrest.

The BBC’s Caroline Duffield in Lagos says gauging the scale of police violence is difficult – there is no proper data on civilians killed by police.

Two years ago the authorities announced they had shot dead 785 armed robbers over a 90-day period, she says.

Amnesty says about 110 police officers are killed in shoot-outs with criminals every year.