Will Business Ever Take Human Rights Seriously?
The UN Global Compact has a whole basketful of detractors. This is not surprising: like anything emanating from UNHQ in Manhattan it is unwieldy and slow moving, and often seems to work against itself.
Recently it hit back at these critics and got tough by introducing “integrity measures”. These resulted in over 20% of its signatories being classed as inactive or delisted altogether because they hadn’t reported back on progress.
However this doesn’t stop companies Bluewashing themselves by committing to the Compact’s Ten Principles and then do nothing except wrap themselves in the UN’s flag of respectability.
Two of the principles refer to Human Rights, stating that the signatory will uphold internationally agreed human rights standards and make sure they’re not complicit in human rights abuses.
