Genocide-backing firms could see backlash

BOSTON – Fidelity Investments’ fund shareholders will get their first chance to vote on a proposal that would block the mutual-fund manager from investing in companies that contribute to genocide, Bloomberg News reported last week.
The Boston-based company will hold a special shareholder meeting March 19 to vote on three proposals, including one establishing “procedures to screen out investments in companies that, in the judgment of the board, substantially contribute to genocide, patterns of extraordinary and egregious violations of human rights or crimes against humanity,” according to a Feb. 29 filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
Fidelity, the world’s largest mutual-fund company, and other asset managers have been pressured by activists to sell stakes in companies such as PetroChina Co., the oil producer whose parent does business with the government of Sudan, where 200,000 people have been killed and 2.2 million made homeless in the civil war in the western-Darfur region.
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