ESG Enforcement Tracker

Key facts:

On 28 June 2017, Sherpa, Ibuka France, and the Collective of Civil Parties for Rwanda filed a complaint against BNP Paribas for complicity in genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes.

The complaint relates to the genocide against the Tutsi in 1994. The complaint alleged that during the genocide and one month after the UN voted for an arms’ embargo, the bank agreed to transfer US$1.3 million from the account of a client, the National Rwandan Bank, to the Swiss account of a South African arms dealer. According to Sherpa, 80 tons of arms and ammunition were subsequently shipped from the Seychelles to Rwanda and were allegedly used to equip the Rwandan Armed Forces involved in the genocide that killed over 800,000 people.
It was further alleged that other banks had refused to violate the embargo, and BNP Paribas was the only bank that agreed to provide financial resources to Rwanda.

This was the first time that a complaint on such a legal basis had been filed against a bank in France. A judicial investigation was launched on 26 September 2017 before the Paris High Court and an investigative judge from the Crimes against Humanity department was appointed to the case. The judicial investigation is ongoing.