United Nations Global Compact
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The United Nations Global Compact is an initiative to encourage businesses worldwide to adopt sustainable and socially responsible policies, and to report on them. Under the Compact, companies are brought together with UN agencies, labour groups and civil society.
The Global Compact was first announced by United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan in an address to The World Economic Forum on January 31, 1999, and was officially launched at UN Headquarters in New York on July 26, 2000. As of 2006, it includes more than 3,300 companies from all regions of the world, as well as around 1000 labour and civil society organizations, also from all regions of the world.
On June 24, 2004, during the first Global Compact Leaders Summit, the Secretary-General announced the addition of a tenth principle against corruption. This step followed an extensive consultation process with all Global Compact participants.
The Global Compact Office is supported by six UN agencies: the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights; the United Nations Environment Programme; the International Labour Organization; the United Nations Development Programme; the United Nations Industrial Development Organization; and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime.
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[edit] Facilitation
The Global Compact is not a regulatory instrument, but rather a forum for discussion and a network for communication including governments; companies and labour, whose actions it seeks to influence; and civil society organizations, representing its stakeholders.
The Compact itself says that once companies are part of the Compact, "This does not mean that the Global Compact recognizes or certifies that these companies have fulfilled the Compact’s principles."
The Compact's goals are intentionally flexible and vague, but it distinguishes the following channels through which it provides facilitation and encourages dialogue: policy dialogues, learning, local networks and projects.
The first Global Compact Leaders Summit, chaired by Secretary-General Kofi Annan, was held in UN Headquarters in New York on June 24, 2004. It aimed to bring "intensified international focus and increased momentum" to the Compact. On the eve of the conference, delegates were invited to attend the first Prix Ars Electronica Digital Communities award ceremony, which was co-hosted by a representative from the UN.
The second Global Compact Leaders Summit, chaired by Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, was held on 5-6 July 2007 at the Palais des Nations in Geneva, Switzerland. It adopted the Geneva Declaration on corporate responsibility.
[edit] The Ten Principles
Human Rights
Businesses should:
- Principle 1: Support and respect the protection of internationally proclaimed human rights; and
- Principle 2: Make sure that they are not complicit in human rights abuses.
Labour Standards
Businesses should uphold:
- Principle 3: the freedom of association and the effective recognition of the right to collective bargaining;
- Principle 4: the elimination of all forms of forced and compulsory labour;
- Principle 5: the effective abolition of child labour; and
- Principle 6: the elimination of discrimination in employment and occupation.
Environment
Businesses should:
- Principle 7: support a precautionary approach to environmental challenges;
- Principle 8: undertake initiatives to promote environmental responsibility; and
- Principle 9: encourage the development and diffusion of environmentally friendly technologies.
Anti-Corruption
- Principle 10: Businesses should work against corruption in all its forms, including extortion and bribery.
[edit] The UN Global Compact - Cities Programme
In 2003, the UN Global Compact - Cities Programme was formed as an urban-focused component of the Global Compact with its International Secretariat located in Melbourne, Australia. The aim of the Cities Programme is to improve urban life in cities throughout the world by effectively using cross-sector partnerships between business, government, and civil society.
[edit] Global Compact Critics
Global Compact Critics is an informal network of organisations and people with concerns about the UN Global Compact. The network gathers and shares information about the Global Compact, partnerships between the United Nations and companies, and corporate accountability. Many NGOs, such as Greenpeace, ActionAid, Global Policy Forum, CorpWatch, SOMO (Centre for Research on Multinational Corporations) and Berne Declaration (Swiss non-governmental organization), believe that without any effective monitoring and enforcement provisions, the Global Compact fails to hold corporations accountable. Moreover, these organisations argue that companies can misuse the Global Compact as a public relations instrument for "bluewash", as an excuse and argument to oppose any binding international regulation on corporate accountability, and as an entry door to increase corporate influence on the policy discourse and the development strategies of the United Nations. On the day before the Global Compact Leaders Summit in June 2007, an international group of NGOs and researchers met at the Palais des Nations in Geneva for a Hearing, to assess the partnership approach of the Global Compact, to present specific case studies of corporate misbehaviour, and to discuss alternative proposals and next steps for the United Nations towards real corporate accountability.
[edit] Alliance for a Corporate-Free UN
The Alliance for a Corporate-Free UN, which no longer exists, was a campaigning organisation of several international NGO's, led by CorpWatch, which highlighted weaknesses in the principles underlying the Global Compact.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- Kell, G. (2005) The Global Compact: Selected Experiences and Reflection, Journal of Business Ethics, 59: 69-79.
- Global Policy Forum Europe (Ed. 2007) Whose Partnership for whose development?: Corporate Accountability in the UN System beyond the Global Compact, Speaking Notes of a Hearing at the United Nations, Geneva, 4 July 2007.
[edit] External links
- Official website
- UN relations with Civil Society (Businesses)
- CorpWatch articles on Global Compact Violaters
- Global Policy Forum - UN and Business
- Official website of the UN Global Compact Cities Programme (an urban focused component of the UN Global Compact)
- The Achievements of the UN Global Compact, Jürgen Nagler
- Global Compact Critics, an informal network of organisations and people with concerns about the UN Global Compact
