Cisco urges investors to vote against some shareholders’ human rights proposals

Cisco is urging its investors at its upcoming shareholders meeting to vote against two separate proposals

by some company stockholders for Cisco to act on human rights issues, according to Cisco’s proxy statement filed this week. One shareholder wants Cisco to create a board committee on human rights, while Boston Common Asset Management, plus some other investors, are calling for Cisco to publish an ‘Internet fragmentation’ report.

In the proxy statement, Cisco states that a shareholder named John C. Harrington will, at the annual meeting, call on Cisco to create a board committee on human rights that would “monitor the ongoing implications of company policies, above and beyond matters of legal compliance, for the human rights of individuals in the US and worldwide,” according to the filing. Cisco sad the proposal was “unnecessary” as the company “strives to treat employees, and the communities in which we operate, with respect and dignity.” It added that it is a supporter of the United Nationsl Global Corporate Citizenship Report.

Separately, Boston Common Asset Management, plus some other investors, are calling on Cisco to publish within six months the steps that Cisco would take to “reduce the likelihood that its business practices might enable or encourage the violation of human rights, including freedom of expression and privacy, or otherwise encourage or enable fragmentation of the internet,” according to the filing. The shareholder group highlights Cisco’s multi-year investment program in China and the fact that Cisco was selected as a key supplier for China’s so-called “Great Firewall of China”.

Cisco maintains that it “endeavors to continuously improve our Corporate Social Responsibility programs.” 

The company’s shareholders last year voted against a similar proposal, again by Boston Common Asset Management, requesting the networking giant refrain from selling products to governments that censor Web content from their citizens

Cisco is due to hold its annual shareholders’ meeting in Santa Clara, Calif., on Nov. 13.

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