Netwerk Vlaanderen - Report ‘Worldwide investments in cluster munitions producers. A shared responsibility’

Report ‘Worldwide investments in cluster munitions producers. A shared responsibility’

Netwerk Vlaanderen campaigns around banks and their investments in weapons. In the field of cluster munitions, a lot has changed in Belgium: since 2007, investing in cluster munitions is banned by law in Belgium. Also internationally progress is made: in December 2008, the Convention on Cluster Munition was signed, a clear signal of the international community that cluster munitions is seen as a inhuman and illegal weapon. Nevertheless banks world-wide keep on investing in cluster munitions and thereby they support the production of this cruel weapon.

In co-operation with IKV Pax Christi, a Peace Organisation from the Netherlands, Netwerk Vlaanderen presents the results of its research on banks and their involvement in cluster munitions producers in the report entitled 'Worldwide Investments in Cluster Munitions: a Shared Responsibility'. The research findings are updated in April 2010.

Download the Full Report, Key Findings and Press Release.pdf

The report

Hall of Shame

Hall of Shame: an overview of which financial institutions worldwide invest in cluster munitions producers.

Hall of Fame and Runners-up

The Hall of Fame focusses on financial institutions which make an example because they have a comprehensive policy which excludes all financial involvement with producers of cluster munitions. Financial institutions which have already undertaken steps in the right direction, but which don’t completely exclude cluster munitions yet are found in the Runners-up category.

Countries’ best practices

Countries’ best practices: Belgium is the first country in the world that bans cluster munitions. Today we can see a few countries have followed example of Belgium, other countries have the intention of doing this with regard to the implementation of the Oslo Convention.

Countries’ Best practices

Full Report

Download the Full Report and Key Findings

Earlier, Netwerk Vlaanderen wrote these reports on banks' investments in weapons:

This April 2010 is an update of the report launched in October 2009. The October 2009 report can be found here.

FI's owning or managing shares or bonds of cluster munitions producers

In both the October 2009 report as well as the April update, we applied thresholds for ownership and management of shares and bonds. (1% for US companies, 0.1 % for Asian companies). This was a pragmatical choice, because listing all the owners/managers of shares and bonds would have provided us with too many financial institutions to publish in a report. There are however many financial institutions who do own/manage bonds and shares below these thresholds, we provide this information here.

Stop Explosive Investments

Netwerk Vlaanderen and IKV Pax Christi are members of the Cluster Munition Coalition, an international coalition of NGO’s. CMC launches the ‘Stop Explosive Investments’ campaign in October 2009. Campaigners world-wide will take action in their own country to stop investments in producers of cluster munitions on a worldly scale.

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