The UN Global Compact is a strategic policy initiative for businesses that are committed to aligning their operations and strategies with ten universally accepted principles in the areas of human rights, labour, environment and anti-corruption. By doing so, business, as a primary agent driving globalization, can help ensure that markets, commerce, technology and finance advance in ways that benefit economies and societies everywhere.

Introduction
 
  • The Human Rights and Business Dilemma

    Verisk Maplecroft
    United Nations Global Compact (UNGC)

    Human rights have traditionally been the concern of states, and international human rights law has generally been addressed to them only. As more companies come to realize their legal, moral, and/or commercial need to address human rights issues within their own operations and activities, they are confronted with a number of challenges. Businesses will have to come to grips with the human rights framework and assess how their activities may relate to it. Moreover, companies are often uncertain how to avoid complicity in human rights abuses and where, in practical terms, the boundaries of their human rights responsibility lie.  more[...]  login_required

    The Author
     
  • Institutionalizing Global Governance – The Role of the United Nations Global Compact

    Prof. Andreas Rasche, Copenhagen Business School
    Prof Dirk Ulrich Gilbert, University of Hamburg

    The United Nations Global Compact – which is a Global Public Policy Network advocating ten universal principles in the areas of human rights, labour standards, environmental protection, and anti-corruption – has turned into the world’s largest corporate responsibility initiative. Although the Global Compact is often characterized as a promising way to address global governance gaps, it remains largely unclear why this is the case. Andreas Rasche and Dirk Ulrich Gilbert discusses to what extent the initiative represents an institutional solution to exercise global governance.  more[...]

    The Author
     
  • The Global Compact 2000–2010

    Prof. Andreas Rasche, Copenhagen Business School

    Over the last 10 years, the Global Compact has grown significantly, both in terms of the number of participants and their engagement. While only a handful of companies and NGOs met on July 26, 2000, at the UN Headquarters in New York to launch the Global Compact, today (as of February 2010) more than 7,300 business and non-business participants are part of the initiative.  more[...]

    The Author
    Prof. Andreas Rasche, Copenhagen Business School 
     
 
 
 
 
Article

People behind

By Editorial Team

The UN Global Compact is a strategic policy initiative for businesses that are committed to aligning their operations and strategies with ten universally accepted principles in the areas of human rights, labour, environment and anti-corruption. By doing so, business, as a primary driver of globalization, can help ensure that markets, commerce, technology and finance advance in ways that benefit economies and societies everywhere.  more[...]

 
 
UN Gebäude-UN Photo/Mark Garten
People behind

Visiting the Global Compact Office

By Dr. Elmer Lenzen

When I went to New York in March 2009, it was during the peak of the banking crisis and the self-doubts of the investment sector. There was a prevailing certainty that one economic era had come to an end, but ambiguity as to how the new era would look. Some of these elements are being intensively discussed and developed at the Global Compact Office: It is about lasting nature, transparency, responsible merchants, and the respectful handling of our planet.  more[...]

 
 
Management_Drei_Saeulen_Book
People behind

Georg Kell about the Global Compact

By Georg Kell (United Nations Global Compact)

Since the very beginning, Georg Kell has been Executive Director of the Global Compact. Due to his ongoing fervour the Global Compact today is fully integrated into the UN system. We spoke with Georg Kell about the economic crisis, the search for new confidence, and the renaissance of politics and ethics. His message is clear: We have to reward sustainable business models. And we have to take climate change much more seriously, or the future might be rough.  more[...]

 
 
 

The Compact in the Regions

 
  • Notable Shift Towards Holistic Understanding of CSR

    Matthias Stausberg, United Nations Global Compact

    It took its time but the Global Compact has become increasingly important in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) over the last couple of years. UNGC spokesperson Matthias Stausberg explains in our interview that the understanding of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) as a value driver is typical for the whole region.  more[...]

    The Author
    Matthias Stausberg, United Nations Global Compact 
     
  • Responsible Business Is the Key – The Role of Corporate Social Responsibility in the Arab Economies

    Walid Nagi, UN Global Compact
    Habiba Al Marashi, Emirates Environmental Group (EEG)

    In this interview, Habiba Al Marashi, Chair of the Emirates Environmental Group (EEG) and Board Member of the UN Global Compact, and Walid Nagi, Manager CSR and Corporate Communications at the Al-Mansour Holding and UNGC Regional Networks Manager MENA and Europe, talk about the drastic social changes, the examples companies can provide, and the importance of the business sector for sustainable development in the MENA region.  more[...]

    The Author
     
 
 

Tools & Instruments

Strategy
Tools & Instruments
 
  • The Global Compact International Yearbook

    Dennis Lohmann

    Since its launch in 2000, the United Nations Global Compact has emerged as perhaps the world’s most influential platform for corporate responsibility. Its structure as a global network uniquely positions the initiative to take a closer look at both global and regional developments and interpretations of corporate social responsibility (CSR).  more[...]

    The Author
    Dennis Lohmann
     
  • Joining the Dots

    Teresa Fogelberg, Global Reporting Initiative

    The trend toward transparency on corporate non-financial performance is gaining momentum and there are a number of frameworks, systems, and principles that help companies disclose information. A key requirement for making sustainability disclosure standard practice for companies and other organizations worldwide is harmonization between these guidance sources.  more[...]

    The Author
    Teresa Fogelberg, Global Reporting Initiative 
     
  • Blueprint for Corporate Sustainability

    Dr. Elmer Lenzen

    Global interconnectivity lets consumer markets constantly grow together. Modern communication technologies accelerate this phenomenon: The brand image as well as the self-perception of any company lies in the hands of millions of people using social media or their buying power.  more[...]  login_required

    The Author
    Dr. Elmer Lenzen
     

One Decade UNGC - Performing Record

UNGC 10th Anniversary
 
Anniversary
 
  • United Nations Global Compact Milestones

    Matthias Stausberg, United Nations Global Compact
    Dr. Elmer Lenzen

    Following a call to action by then-UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan at the 1999 World Economic Forum in Davos, the operational phase of the UN Global Compact was launched on July 26, 2000, at UN Headquarters in New York.  more[...]

    The Author
     
  • UN Global Compact Milestones

    Dr. Elmer Lenzen

    Following a call to action by then-UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan at the 1999 World Economic Forum in Davos, the operational phase of the UN Global Compact was launched on July 26, 2000, at UN Headquarters in New York.  more[...]

    The Author
    Dr. Elmer Lenzen
     
  • The Global Compact at 10: Review and Outlook

    Georg Kell, United Nations Global Compact

    Looking back at the past 10 years, the United Nations Global Compact has left its mark in a variety of ways, helping shape the conversation about corporate responsibility and diffusing the concept of a principle-based approach to doing business across the glob  more[...]

    The Author
    Georg Kell, United Nations Global Compact 
     
Comments
Post Comment
 

Write a comment about this page

Your comments are provided by your own free will and you take sole responsibility for any direct or indirect liability. In order to maintain the highest discussion quality, all comments will be reviewed by our editors. You hereby provide us with an irrevocable, unlimited, and global license for no consideration to use, reuse, delete or publish comments in accordance with our Community Guidelines.

 
  • Comment by Johng804
    07:02 AM, October 17, 2014

    Just wanna remark on couple of general issues, The web site style is perfect, the subject matter is rattling excellent gaedgefgabef

 
 
https://www.csr-academy.org/en/agenda/Dossiers/Global-Compact/The-United-Nations-Global-Compact.php