Fido shareholders shoot down human-rights proposal

Shareholders of two mutual funds from Fidelity Investments voted against a non-binding proposal that would have prohibited the Boston-based manager from investing its funds in companies that contribute to genocide or other such crimes against humanity.

But supporters claimed some success with 21.9% of shareholders in the Fidelity Freedom 2010 Fund (FFFCX) and 23.4% of shareholders in the Fidelity Freedom 2020 Fund (FFFDX) voting in favor of the proposal.

Fidelity opposed the proposal.

Eric Cohen, chairperson of Boston-based Investors Against Genocide noted that it’s difficult to get a majority vote because many institutional voters automatically side with management.

Many individual shareholders, he added, don’t bother to vote.