OECD Complaint Against BlackRock
In November 2024, Friends of the Earth U.S. and the Articulation of Indigenous Peoples of Brazil (APIB) filed an OECD complaint against BlackRock – the world’s largest asset manager – for directly contributing to environmental and human rights abuses through its investments in agribusiness companies. The complaint, which was filed with the National Contact Point at the U.S. State Department, details how BlackRock has poured billions of dollars into companies destroying the world’s last standing forests, driving biodiversity loss, and unleashing an epidemic of violence against Human Rights Defenders, despite its awareness of the risks and impacts from agribusiness operations.
Read a summary of the complaint
Read the press release
Read coverage of the complaint in The Guardian
About the OECD Guidelines
Over the last several years, elected officials, civil society organizations, frontline defenders, Indigenous Peoples federations, and Indigenous women leaders have all sought to engage BlackRock on its role in financing deforestation, biodiversity loss, labor abuses, land grabbing, violations of Indigenous Peoples’ rights, violence against Human Rights Defenders, and corruption. Through direct engagement and public reporting, BlackRock has been informed about specific environmental and human rights violations committed by investee companies, alongside the material risks and adverse impacts posed by agribusiness operations.
Despite this understanding, BlackRock has sustained and increased its investments in destructive agribusiness companies between 2019 and 2024. Based on public data, the complaint highlights that BlackRock has more than $5 billion invested in 20 agribusiness companies with documented evidence of environmental and human rights abuses, increased its investments in these companies by $519 million since 2019, and is a top 10 shareholder in each company.
The complaint comes at a time when global deforestation is once again on the rise, fueling intersecting crises of climate change, biodiversity loss, and violence against Indigenous Peoples and Human Rights Defenders. The complaint builds on a trend of OECD complaints seeking to hold financial institutions accountable for enabling human rights and environmental violations, including through index funds.
The OECD Guidelines are recommendations from governments to private companies on responsible business conduct and am to serve as an important framework for corporate accountability in the absence of binding regulations in national and international law.