UNGC: Initiative for Environmental and Social Principles
By Kim Sue-young
Staff Reporter
The United Nations Global Compact (UNGC) was launched at the U.N headquarters in New York on July 26, 2000, to support universal environmental and social principles.
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and his predecessor Kofi Annan stressed the importance of the compact.
The U.N. agency aims to help firms implement their corporate social responsibility and suggest solutions for global issues.
Stressing communication among members, it has established about 40 local networks to help participants jointly advance the compact and its principles related to anti-corruption activities and other human rights, labor and environmental issues.
It also holds an annual forum for the local networks to share their experiences and knowledge and compare progress.
Through the forum, member nations can also learn effective measures to solve their problems from other participants.
The UNGC runs an inter-agency team for consistent support to spread the compact's principles within the U.N. and among participants.
The team consists of six U.N. agencies which include the Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights; the International Labor Organization; the U.N. Environment Program; the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime; the U.N. Development Program; and the U.N. Industrial Development Organization.
Multinational firms such as CNN, Coca Cola and the Financial Times registered with the UNGC program.
Now, thousands of companies worldwide are participating in the compact which advocates the 10 universal principles in the fields of human rights, labor, environment and anti-corruption.
Below are the 10 principles that the UNGC is seeking.
Human Rights
• Principle 1: Businesses should support and respect the protection of internationally proclaimed human rights.
• Principle 2: They should make sure that they are not complicit in human rights abuses.
Labor Standards
• Principle 3: Businesses should uphold the freedom of association and the effective recognition of the right to collective bargaining.
• Principle 4: They should uphold the elimination of all forms of forced and compulsory labor and
• Principle 5: The effective abolition of child labor.
• Principle 6: The elimination of discrimination in respect of employment and occupation.
Environment
• Principle 7: Businesses should support a precautionary approach to environmental challenges.
• Principle 8: They should undertake initiatives to promote greater environmental responsibility.
• Principle 9: They should 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.