Page 5 - Article 9 News Today

Amundi has reclassified almost all of its sustainability range of Article 9 funds into Article 8.

Kazakhstan maintains public lists of individuals and organisations allegedly connected to "terrorism or extremism" list, and secret "high-risk" or "suspicious" organisation lists circulated to banks. Both lists lead to blocking and denial of bank accounts and numerous other problems. "Weve written more than 10 letters to various state agencies," Protestant Pastor Pyotr Shelepanov of New Life Church in Talgar told Forum 18. "But weve had no real answer...

Algebris Investments has launched a new sustainable world strategy, the Article 9-labelled Algebris Sustainable World fund.

A St Petersburg court is due to hear the case on 25 November of Danara Erendzhenova, who held up a poster outside the citys Buddhist temple. "Militarism is very expensive – Dalai Lama XIV", it read, which police claim "discredits" Russias armed forces. A Chita court fined Vitaly Goryachikh two weeks average local wage for an anti-war poster which cited "I will fear no evil" from Psalm 23. They are among at least 26 known such prosecutions for opposing Russias ...

Robeco is expanding its impact investment range with a new Article 9 biodiversity equities strategy, the RobecoSAM Biodiversity Equities fund.

Five Sunni Muslims jailed in Balkanabat for 12 years each in August 2017 for meeting to study the works of the theologian Said Nursi were transferred recently to new labour camps. The strict-regime labour camp at Bayramali in Mary Region, where four of the five are held, also holds another jailed Nursi reader, 47-year-old Begench Dadebayew. At least two among more than 60 men jailed from 2013 for participating in a Sunni Muslim group in Turkmenabat have been freed after completing their jail ter...

Despite obvious comparisons between the UK's SDR consultation paper (published today, 25 October) and Europe's Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation (SFDR), the FCA is keen to clarify that this is a very different regime.

The regime closed all Islamic bookshops in Dushanbe in August and September, as well as some publishers of Islamic literature. The regime has also continued demands that non-Muslim religious communities complete intrusive questionnaires. Some suggested family information is being collected "so that it will be easy to identify us and our family members if in future they decide to target us". "All mosques are under total state control," human rights defenders observed, "so...

The ambiguity of ESG ratings has come under pressure from the European Fund and Asset Management Association (EFAMA) after it found a low correlation between different companies’ ratings.

On 3 August, days after the secret police arrested him, Badakhshan Regional Court jailed Muzaffar Davlatmirov, a respected 58-year-old Ismaili religious leader, for 5 years for alleged "public calls for extremist activity". "Davlatmirov is not an extremist, and did not call for extremist activity," a local person who knows him told Forum 18. His relatives and friends do not know where he is serving his sentence. The regime has closed all Ismaili prayer houses in the region an...