The US mutual fund manager Vanguard Group has formalised a process to monitor its mutual funds for investments in companies that may be linked to human-rights abuses, according to a proxy filing for its annual meeting.
 

But it has urged Vanguard shareholders to resist an activist group's pressure on them to divest holdings that activists say are linked to Chinese investments in the African nation of Sudan where genocide is allegedly taking place. Vanguard argues the proposal would duplicate the fund-screening process it has adopted.

The activist group, Investors Against Genocide, says there is no indication that Vanguard has sold investments in Chinese oil companies and other firms that the group says are linked to genocide in Sudan. Quarterly holdings reports by Vanguard funds show the funds "have been operating pretty much business as usual," said Eric Cohen, the Boston-based nonprofit group's chairman.