Wespath announced today the launch of an enhanced human rights exclusion framework for the fixed income (bond) funds in its denominational employee benefit plans. This framework reflects Wespath’s commitment to honoring The United Methodist Church’s (UMC’s) call to address human rights concerns, while ensuring that all sovereign debt (government bond) investments are assessed through the same principled approach, grounded in credible data and thoughtful stewardship.

The framework follows Wespath’s deep and prayerful consideration of the UMC General Conference’s Resolution 3226 (resolution), approved in 2024, which calls on Wespath and other UMC organizations to exclude investments in the sovereign debt of governments engaged in prolonged military occupations.

Developed in collaboration with the Heartland Initiative, Wespath’s long-standing strategic partner and expert on human rights risks, the framework uses a range of reputable data sources to identify governments with documented patterns of human rights violations.

In addition to excluding sovereign debt investments of governments engaged in prolonged military occupation, the framework also considers governments with documented patterns of authoritarianism, corruption, or subject to comprehensive sanctions regimes. Wespath’s framework applies uniform criteria to ensure that exclusion decisions are consistently applied in a principled way across the entire sovereign debt investment holdings for our P Series funds that support Wespath’s benefit plans.

The framework also includes structural guardrails to ensure that Wespath continues to meet its obligations as a fiduciary. If a potential exclusion poses a significant risk to portfolio performance or diversification, as a fiduciary, Wespath retains discretion to evaluate the situation on a case-by-case basis.

As of the most recent review, the framework identified over 60 countries with elevated human rights risks. Wespath currently holds sovereign debt in approximately 25% of those countries—including those named in the resolution (Israel, Turkey and Morocco), as well as other nations, such as China, Qatar and Russia—representing approximately $90 million, or 0.4% (four tenths of one percent) of total P Series assets. These holdings will be replaced with fixed income investments with similar risk and return characteristics, including other sovereign debt, that do not have these human rights concerns.

Wespath believes this human rights exclusion framework reflects Wespath’s commitment to thoughtful stewardship, data-driven analysis and principled decision-making, while reflecting the UMC Social Principles’ call to hold all governments accountable for human rights and liberty.

Contact: Christina Tincher
Managing Director, Communications
(847) 866-5293
[email protected]