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(San Francisco, February 25, 2004)
- Today FICSA, the largest UN employee association, announced
that it had requested the $21 billion UN pension fund to review
the issue of social and environmental investing.
The resolution, adopted at the plenary session of the annual
meeting of FICSA in Geneva, states that "the Executive Committee
of FICSA request the UNJSPB the UN pension board - to review
the issue of ethical investments, evaluate the possibilities
and provide a report."
FICSA’s "Standing Committee considered the contents of a letter
from Bruno Schneider, Executive Director of UN Observer.org.
That letter requested that the Pension Fund administrators
initiate a process by which socially and environmentally responsible
guidelines would be adopted in the future when considering
the investment of funds.
The resolution added that the Standing
Committee “was generally in favour of the proposal, taking
into account the principles by which the UN was constituted.
Moreover, that approach to investments was becoming common
practice amongst socially responsible organisations, while
the performance of ethical investments bore every comparison
to other investments in the market place."
“We are delighted to see that FICSA is favoring the use of
socially and environmentally responsible investment practices
at the $21 billion UN pension fund,” said Bruno Schneider,
Executive Director of UN observer.org. "The support of the
largest UN employee association is clearly critical to the
success of our campaign."
FICSA the Federation of International Civil Servants’ Associations
was created in 1952 to protect the rights of the staff of
the United Nations and its specialized agencies, funds and
programs. It is a federated group of 27 staff associations
and unions from organizations belonging to the United Nations
common system.
UN Observer.org is a Non Governmental Organization inspired
by the vision of a strong and effective UN system guided by
human rights and environmental principles.
As an organization driven by the belief that leadership is
best achieved by example, UN Observer.org's mission is to
encourage and assist the United Nations family of organizations
to hold itself to the same human rights and environmental
principles that it promotes.
UN Observer.org publishes newsletters and issue-specific reports,
provides an on-line electronic forum, organizes advocacy campaigns
and maintains a resource and documentation center available
to the public on issues relating to the UN and human rights.
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