Deutsche Bank is the latest in a string of high-profile brands to shun Brunei-owned businesses. The new laws introduced by Brunei breach the most basic human rights, the German lender said.
Deutsche Bank is the latest in a string of high-profile brands – both corporate an individual – to boycott the Sultan of Brunei's businesses in protest of a new law that would allow gay sex and marital infidelity to be punished by stoning in the kingdom.
Brunei's sharia code or Muslim law allows for crimes such as adultery, gay sex, and abortion to be punished by a crude medical method where the guilty would be stoned to death.
First Amongst Equals
Deutsche Bank, one of the co-founders of the Partnership for Global Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Inter and Queer (LGBTIQ) Equality consortium, is the first global bank to have spoken out against the new law.
«The new laws introduced by Brunei breach the most basic human rights, and we believe it is our duty as a firm to take action against them,» Deutsche Bank’s Chief Risk Officer Stuart Lewis, said in a statement. The German lender has excluded all nine properties in the Brunei-owned Dorchester Collection from the list of hotels available to employees for corporate travel.
Boycott Brunei
A global boycott of both the hotel group and flag-carrier Royal Brunei Airlines was called for by celebrities Elton John and George Clooney who specifically asked for «banks, the financiers and the institutions» that have business dealings with the hotel tone named and shamed.
The Financial Times, Knight Frank and the U.K's largest listed property company Landsec, are some of the companies to have answered the rallying call. The Association of Real Estate Funds which has also canceled a venue at the Dorchester in London said: «The LGBT+ community enriches our industry, and investors expect everyone – irrespective of their backgrounds, identity or beliefs - to be treated with respect and dignity. We will, therefore, be looking for alternative arrangements.»
