Statement by NGO Participants in the Global Compact Summit
24 June 2004
UN Headquarters - New York
Authors:
Amnesty International
The Ethical Globalization Initiative
Global Witness
Human Rights First
International Save the Children Alliance
Oxfam International
The aforementioned NGOs participating in the UN Global Compact Leaders Summit
recognize the critical role companies play in promoting and protecting human
rights and safeguarding the environment. To this end we support the efforts
of the Global Compact to bring the United Nation's unique authority to bear
on the commitments that companies should make to uphold labour rights, protect
the environment and human rights.
The truly global nature of the Global Compact initiative and its efforts to
include companies from all regions of the world are commendable. We recognize
that some companies have made considerable efforts in implementing the nine
original principles of the Global Compact. However, the overall impact of the
Global Compact has fallen far short of expectations and its potential to make
a difference. The Global Compact has failed to create among the participants
a clear understanding of its principles and how they should be implemented.
It continues to have no proper mechanism for the ensuring its integrity or its
effectiveness and we are concerned that specific companies may be using their
participation in the Global Compact to boost their brand value without changing
practices.
The Leaders Summit was unique in bringing together global leaders from the business,
trade unions, civil society and the UN. It has been important to acknowledge
the good work done by some companies and to motivate Global Compact participants.
However, it remains to be seen whether it will lead to a re-energized vision
and a strategy for concrete action and outcomes. Corporate Social Responsibility
needs to be matched with a commitment to corporate accountability if civil society
is to have confidence in the Global Compact. We believe that the Global Compact
must
a) Improve its credibility through the implementation of genuinely independent
complaints mechanism and other integrity measures
b) Increase its performance by challenging companies to move from rhetoric to
reporting on progress
c) Support the UN Norms on the Responsibilities of Transnational Corporations
and Other Business Enterprises with regard to human rights adopted by the UN
Sub-Commission on the promotion and Protection of Human Rights and test their
efficacy.
The process for changes to the Global Compact announced today need to address
these weaknesses to allow the debate to move forward to identify the role of
business in tackling the negative aspects of globalization. This process must
be done quickly if the Global Compact is going to retain its credibility with
civil society