DR Congo-story in Berlingske
In the Danish daily newspaper Berlingske we are putting critical attention to investments in government bonds in regimes in Africa that are amongst the most corrupt and least democratic in the world, for example D.R.Congo who has one of the worst human rights record in the world. Today most investors in the West – such as major pension funds – have signed a set of rules for social responsibility in their investments, such as UNPRI or Global Compact. But these international rules do not apply to investments in government bonds even though the dilemmas are the same.
By buying state bonds you give a non-earmarked loan to the state, that offers the bonds. Thereby major investors in Denmark such as pension funds, investment funds and even local governments end up actively financing dictatorships and perhaps even the crimes against the people of these countries.
For Berlingske I travelled to D.R.Congo to document some of the crimes committed by the same regime that Danish investors are unawarely supporting. The story was kickstarted on the front page + 13 additional pages in Berlingske on May 13, 2012. For a month’s time we produced almost daily follow ups with for example political reactions and debates about new legislation or at least guidelines. You can read the full story, see my pictures and much more on
Berlingskes website here and on
this website you can also find a multimedia (in Danish only). And you can see more
tear sheets from the story here.
Posted on Monday, June 18th, 2012 at 23:25. Filed under: News RSS 2.0 feed.
