The Unitarian Universalist Association (UUA) in its annual General Assembly in June 2020 adopted the Business Resolution entitled: “Embodying Human Rights in Our Investment Decisions” with some 95% voting for it!
Adoption of the resolution by the UUA General Assembly means that it is now official policy of the UUA. The resolution concerns the management of funds in the UU Common Endowment Fund (UUCEF). The UUCEF contains the UUA’s endowment and the endowments of several hundred UU congregations. Read the resolution as adopted. And note that the resolution explicitly mentions the human rights of “Palestinians who have suffered for decades from expulsion, land seizure, and denial of fundamental rights based on their ethnicity”.
The resolution calls on the UUA: To divest from corporations that are directly complicit in serious human rights violations; To develop clear policies on implementation of human rights considerations regarding investment/divestment, shareholder activism and community investing; and To develop formal means of communication between the UUA investment committees (Investment Committee and Socially Responsible Investing Committee) and UU social justice groups, UU congregations and UU individuals concerned about social justice. The resolution is in profound agreement with UU values and was cosponsored by several UU social justice/human rights groups acting in accord with those values, including: Black Lives UU, UU Refugee and Immigrant Services and Education, UUs for Justice in the Middle East, UU Ministry for Earth and UU Peace Ministry Network.
“We must stop supporting products and services that cause harm (oppression and repression) in our communities,” said Rev. Kimberly Johnson, Minister of the UU Congregation of South Fork in Bridgehampton, NY, and member of the Organizing Collective Board of Black Lives UU. Human Rights are universal and working together for them across specific issues makes all of us stronger.
Building a strong connection between UUA investment committees and UU social justice organizations is another important feature of the resolution. As Katia Hansen, President of UU Refugee and Immigrant Services and Education, says, “This resolution creates a mechanism for investment specialists to get guidance on social justice issues from social justice specialists.”
It is expected that the increased awareness to investor power in pursuit of human rights provided by the resolution will influence investment decisions of UU Associated Organizations, UU congregations and UU individuals.
Our nation is now in deep turmoil over the racism, militarism, poverty and inequality endemic in our country. This resolution provides us with a powerful tool in the struggle against these social evils in our country and the world as a whole.
[The above info and more about UUJME at GA appeared in a UUJME mailing. If you are not receiving national UUJME mailings, please take a look at this one and note that you can subscribe to future mailings in its upper left corner: UUJME Mailing. All prior mailings can be selected an viewed: HERE.]
