Our approach to sovereign debt

Oppressive regimes

CCLA does not invest in sovereign debt issued by countries identified as the most oppressive. The identification of such countries is based on an analysis of the following four data sources.

Freedom House

Freedom House (FH) has three categories: Free, Partly Free and Not Free. Counties rated as ‘Not Free’ (the lowest band – a combined score of less than 30) are included in the analysis.

Corruption Perception Index (CPI) 

Data is sourced from Transparency International. Countries with a score of 20 (or below) are included in the analysis.

US Commission on International Religious Freedom

Data comprises two lists: Countries of Particular Concern (CPCs) where the government engages in or tolerates ‘particularly severe’ violations of religious freedom and the Special Watch List (SWL) related to ‘severe’ violations. Data from both lists is included in the analysis.

UN embargoes (only state-led)/EU embargoes  

Data is sourced from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute. The data covers: UN Mandatory Arm Embargoes (removing lifted/suspended sanctions or sanctions against non-governmental forces (NGFs)) and EU embargoes (removing lifted/suspended sanctions or sanctions against NGFs). In this case only information on countries where the embargoes are against the state are included.

This data is combined to produce the following list of restricted sovereign debt.

October 2024