UN Readies for its Biggest-Ever Gathering on Corporate Citizenship
05 Apr 20075 April 2007 – More than 700 business leaders and hundreds of top representatives from government, labor and civil society are expected to attend the Global Compact Leaders Summit in Geneva in July, which will be the largest ever gathering convened by the United Nations on the issue of corporate citizenship.
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told a meeting yesterday in New York of the Global Compact Board, a panel of 20 leaders from business, civil society and labor which he chairs, that the two-day summit “will be instrumental in bringing our joint vision for the future cooperation between business, the UN, governments, civil society and labor to full scale.”
Created by Mr. Ban’s predecessor, Kofi Annan, in 1999, the Global Compact is an initiative that tries to advance 10 principles of good corporate citizenship and responsible globalization in such areas as combating corruption, safeguarding the environment, ensuring social inclusion and building markets.
Thousands of companies around the world, as well as labor and civil society groups, are now part of the Compact, which is an entirely voluntary initiative.
In his opening remarks to yesterday’s meeting, the Board’s second, Mr. Ban stressed to members that they will play a key role in guiding the body’s efforts towards promoting peace, human rights and development.
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