Twenty Years of Failure: MN BBC Report Documents MN State Board of Investment’s Neglect of Human Rights

On September 11, 2013, members of MN BBC personally delivered a comprehensive report to Governor Mark Dayton at the quarterly State Board of Investment meeting documenting the SBI’s twenty year failure to follow its own international human rights investment guidelines. MN BBC prepared the report following a two year examination of internal SBI documents. Those documents revealed that the SBI’s human rights guidelines, adopted in 1992 by a task force led by then State Auditor Dayton following pressure from Minnesota’s two largest labor unions, have failed to prevent the SBI from investing in countries, like Israel, that are documented human rights violators. According to the the report, the guidelines have received little more than lip service from the SBI’s investment managers, exposing the State of Minnesota to accusations of financial complicity in international human rights violations. The report concludes with recommendations that would immediately bring the SBI into compliance, if adopted. Click MNBBC-White Paper to see the full report.