Vaud State Pension Fund: Delegates Demand Immediate Divestment from Israeli Bonds

At the CPEV Delegates’ Assembly on September 25, the Sud and SSP-Vaud unions, supported in their efforts by ASAP, secured the adoption of a resolution calling for immediate and complete divestment from all assets linked to violations of international law in Palestine, including entities that support the Israeli military or security apparatus.

The delegates also demanded that the pension fund implement a rigorous exclusion methodology. This methodology will aim to prohibit any investment in companies involved in violations of international law in Palestine, drawing on the United Nations blacklist, the Norwegian sovereign wealth fund’s exclusion list, or any other recognized source regarding human rights and international law.

The Assembly thus concluded that, given the gravity of the situation in Palestine, an urgent review of the CPEV’s investment policies must be conducted, in light of its responsible investment principles and its legal obligations as a public-law institution. It also reiterated the CPEV’s duty of transparency and called on the fund to provide a comprehensive account to civil society of all its investments.

This initiative follows several union resolutions, numerous statements by worker representatives within the public pension funds of the cantons of Geneva, Fribourg, and Ticino, as well as parliamentary interventions. These actions underscore that the workers contributing to these funds refuse to be indirectly complicit in the atrocities committed in Gaza.