Disney Shareholders Reject Proposals on Severing Ties With Human Rights Campaign, Climate Risk

March 20, 2025

Disney shareholders rejected proposals to sever ties with the Human Rights Campaign’s Corporate Equality Index; to issue a report on the risks of climate change to the company’s businesses; and to issue a report examining the risks related to ad buying and selling.

The company held its annual shareholder meeting Thursday, where stockholders voted against the proposals by overwhelming margins, at least according to preliminary results.

As has become an annual tradition for Disney and other large corporations, entities with political ties submitted shareholder proposals connected to hot-button political issues. The company urged shareholders to reject the proposals in its annual proxy filing.

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The HRC proposal was submitted by the National Center for Public Policy Research, which is associated with conservative political groups. It urged Disney to withdraw from the CEI report. Disney’s board said that it oversees Disney’s risk related to human rights issues, and thus such a vote is unnecessary.

The climate change proposal as submitted by As You Sow, a left-of-center advocacy group that seeks to raise awareness of climate risks to businesses.

The ad-related proposal was submitted by Bowyer Research, and was focused on Disney’s prowess as an advertising buyer, and its association with GARM, the Global Alliance for Responsible Media, which had pushed to discourage advertising from some platforms and programs, sparking anger from conservative groups who felt that they had been unfairly singled out.

Many large companies now face politically-tinged shareholder proposals at their annual meetings, with high-profile companies like Disney often targeted specifically. Even though the proposals are usually not successful, they do serve to drive awareness for the groups and causes proposing them, giving them a platform to express their views and get a response from the company, however carefully that response is worded.

 

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