SECRETARY-GENERAL STRESSES PARTNERSHIP BETWEEN BUSINESS, UNITED NATIONS IN ADDRESS TO EXECUTIVE CLUB IN STOCKHOLM
Press Release
SG/SM/7004
SECRETARY-GENERAL STRESSES PARTNERSHIP BETWEEN BUSINESS, UNITED NATIONS IN ADDRESS TO EXECUTIVE CLUB IN STOCKHOLM
19990525 Following is the text of the address of Secretary-General Kofi Annan to the Svenska Dagbladet's Executive Club in Stockholm, Sweden, on 25 May:I am doubly pleased to be with you today. Sweden is an old and trusted partner and ally of the United Nations. Business is a newer one. Today, I have the privilege of seeing both partners, old and new, in the same room. And as the old partnership needs no introduction, let me take this occasion to tell you something about the new.
The United Nations needs business. We need it as an advocate for international cooperation, a promoter of investment, trade and open markets. We need it as a doer and mover to promote development by investing in and transferring technology to developing countries. And we need it as a partner in the dialogue on economic, social and related issues.
But, if business is an indispensable partner to the United Nations, the United Nations, too, has much to offer business. We can do that in a number of ways: by providing the "soft infrastructure" that facilitates economic transactions; by preparing the ground for investment in developing countries, in areas such as good governance, education and health; by fighting poverty and addressing what we call "problems without passports" -- from environmental degradation to AIDS, to organized crime; and by promoting peace and the rule of the law.
Increasingly, business and the United Nations are joining forces. The voice of business is heard when economic or developmental issues are debated at the United Nations. And corporations are supporting the United Nations agenda where broad interests converge. For example, insurance corporations are working with the United Nations Environment Programme to reduce environmental risks.
In developing countries, many new forms of practical cooperation are taking shape. New technology is provided by corporations to make food- emergency delivery more effective. Companies are working with the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) to promote investment in Africa. Philanthropists like Ted Turner and the Rotary Club donate funds to help feed needy children and eradicate disease.
To help you find your way in the United Nations, and to facilitate the search for viable partnership projects, we have created a new Web site -- www.un.org/partners. It provides a one-stop shop for business, a virtual enterprise liaison service. All United Nations programmes, specialized agencies, international financial institutions, as well as the World Trade Organization, are there to explain why and how their work is relevant to business -- and how business can work with them.
But, there is much more we can and must do. Growing interdependencies between people and nations are reshaping our destinies. Wealth and poverty increasingly divide our world. And neither our ability to cope with global problems, nor our willingness to share responsibility, are keeping pace.
That gap, and the risks associated with it, are apparent in many areas. But nowhere more so than in global markets, which are outpacing the ability of Governments and societies to adjust. The recent global crisis showed us how important it is to pool our efforts to reduce risks. It is essential if we are to avoid the high costs of delayed action -- costs that tend to be distributed unevenly, with the worst affected being those least equipped to cope.
Global markets, like national markets, need rules and safeguards. More than that, they need to be embedded in a broad framework of shared values and responsibilities.
Shared values form the pillars upon which markets rest, because laws cannot be separated from the expectations and aspirations of society. We know all this when it comes to national economies; indeed, the most successful are those underpinned by a rule of law that corresponds with the will of the people. However, we have yet to learn how to apply that lesson to global markets.
Shared responsibility is equally crucial. Markets respond to demand, not to needs. They cannot in themselves solve all problems. Governments have to provide an enabling framework and to address effectively problems which lie beyond markets' reach. But non-State actors, too -- especially the international business community -- have to play their civic part, because with growing power and reach come growing responsibility. We need to find new ways of engaging them.
It was with this in mind that I proposed a "Global Compact" at the World Economic Forum in Davos last January. I challenged business leaders to embrace three sets of universal principles in the areas of human rights, core labour standards and the human environment. Their effective implementation can give the global market a human face.
These principles are based on the Universal Declaration of Human Rights; the Social Summit in Copenhagen; and the Rio Earth Summit. They enjoy broad
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support by the international community. Together, they form a platform that expresses the aspirations of all peoples.
From a more narrowly self-interested point of view, corporations which embrace these principles are better placed to deal more constructively with pressure from single-issue groups. But there is also a broader self-interest. Implementing these principles effectively is a condition for safeguarding open markets and for forging new market rules in areas such as investment. I am convinced that doing so not only makes good business sense; it makes common sense. You are pacesetters and forerunners of globalization. Increasingly, your leadership and actions are shaping the lives of people everywhere. You can make a real difference by joining our effort. You can do so in three different ways:
First, by advocating a strong United Nations and promoting the understanding that the United Nations' work on development, on human rights, on the environment and on social issues does not go against the flow of trade and investment; it facilitates it. Advocating greater authority and resources for the United Nations, especially for its efforts to create better employment conditions, combat global environmental problems and advocate human rights, is not only the right thing to do. It is also the most sensible way of ensuring that markets remain open and that the benefits associated with economic interdependence can be spread more widely.
Second, you can make a big contribution within your own sphere of influence. You can embrace and act on the principles by incorporating them in your mission statements and management practices. Doing so will not only help to create greater awareness about global values and, thus, give markets a more stable foundation; it also can make a big difference for the better in the lives of people you work with, or who are part of the community in which you operate. You may also find that these principles provide a sense of community and common purpose among employees who come from different cultures and speak different languages.
Third, you will soon be able to explore with the United Nations ways to translate these principles into corporate practice. The International Labour Organization, the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights and the United Nations Environment Programme are currently joining forces under the guidance of my Office. Their first goal is to create the capacity to encourage global corporate citizenship and to foster the translation of these principles into corporate practice.
The Global Compact is not a code of conduct. Neither is it a disguised effort to raise minimum standards, nor a vehicle for special interest groups. It is a compact to help markets deliver what they are best at -- while, at the same time, contributing to a more humane world.
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In recent years, we have witnessed an entirely new phenomenon that is one of the happier consequences of globalization -- an incipient sense of global citizenship and responsibility among all sectors of civil society. Individuals and groups animated by shared concerns, united by communications and supported by world public opinion, have given voice to a new global people-power. They were a driving force behind the treaty banning anti-personnel mines two years ago, and the Statute for the establishment of the International Criminal Court last year.
Business is no exception. Increasingly, business leaders recognize that their responsibility -- and their interest -- lie not only in how their actions affect their shareholders, but in the way they affect all life on this planet.
I hope more of you will follow suit. Your sector has an immense store of knowledge and experience. You have vast numbers of talented and insightful people. And numerous companies have undertaken beneficial and innovative projects in countries in need of help.
The private sector of Sweden -- with several companies older than most countries, more multinationals per capita than most nations, and labour standards higher than practically anywhere else -- has an obvious leadership role to play. I hope, therefore, that we will see ever-more resourceful people like yourselves working in partnership with the United Nations. We will need all your support to make the principles of the Compact a reality. I will now try to answer your questions -- and I trust you will question my answers.
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