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UN Global Compact Chief
Says Corporations Are Victims Too, Lashes
Out at Critic
Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of
Inner City Press at the UN: News Analysis
UNITED NATIONS,
December 19 -- While global publics
question the ethics of business executives who ran their companies into
the
ground, sought taxpayer bailouts and then still seek year-end bonuses,
the UN's
corporate social responsibility unit, the Global Compact, has little to
nothing
to say on the topic. In the past week, Inner City Press has asked both
the
director and honorary chairman of the Compact to speak to this
question.
Mark
Moody Stuart, during a break of the Compact board's meeting ostensibly
to
improve the reports on progress that member companies file, told Inner
City
Press that the bailouts are purely a national matter, and emphasized
that
ethics controversies exist only with respect to the financial services
industry. He works in mining, and has previously debated Inner City
Press about
his company's investment in Robert Mugabe's Zimbabwe. Ethics, anyone?
Georg Kell,
the director of the Compact, was even more combative. On
bailouts, he answered in part that
"corporations are as much victims as taxpayers." Video here,
from
Minute 10:53. Inner City Press asked him about a critique
offered, from the
same rostrum at which he sat, by the President of the UN General
Assembly's expert
on water, Maude Barlow. Kell's
response
was surprisingly, or telling:
"Frankly, we have never met.
She has never engaged in our work. I don’t think she knows what we are
doing,
because many NGOs are involved in our water work. As a matter of fact,
many of
the heavy lifting on water analysis is done by some non-corporate
actors, which
are highly respected in that field. […] As I said, she has never looked
into
our work. She has never attended any of our meetings. I don’t think she
is
aware of what our communication on progress policy is about. I don’t
think she
has really looked into what we are." Video here,
from Minute 13:31.
But there
are people who have looked into the Compact, and are nevertheless
skeptical
about its seriousness in holding corporations to account. How are people
supposed to know more about the Compact's work, when for example its
proposal
on Communications on Progress, which Inner City Press asked for while
outside
the closed-door meeting, still has not been provided, nor the outcome
of the
Compact's meeting on labor standards?
UN's Ban, Kell at right, with Coca-Cola executive, Maude Barlow not
shown
On
December 18, Inner City Press asked the spokesman for the President of
the
General Assembly about Kell's comments, and what jurisdiction the
General
Assembly has over the Global Compact. Video here,
from Minute 18:52. He replied
that "the Global Compact is part of the Secretariat... and the whole
Organization."
But to
whom or what is the Global Compact accountable?
While this reporting may seen harsh, even with the
well-intentioned there is a problem when there is no accountability,
and little oversight.
Even
administratively, the Compact has been shifted from the Executive
Office of the Secretary-General over to the UN Department of
Management, the
head of which Angela Kane has only briefed the press one time since
assuming
the post, and who is also in charge of such things as the repair of the
building and the so-called Capital Master Plan. Who knows more about
the Global
Compact, Angela Kane or Maude Barlow, who is now, with some friction
with the
Compact, in the UN orbit? To be continued.
Click here from Inner City Press'
December 12 debate on UN double standards
Click here for Inner
City Press' November 25 debate on Somalia, politics
Click here for Inner City
Press Nov. 7 debate on the war in Congo
Watch this site, and this Oct. 2 debate, on
UN, bailout, MDGs
and this October 17 debate, on
Security Council and Obama and the UN.
* * *
These
reports are
usually also available through Google
News and on Lexis-Nexis.
Click
here
for a Reuters
AlertNet piece by this correspondent
about Uganda's Lord's Resistance Army. Click
here
for an earlier Reuters AlertNet piece about the Somali
National
Reconciliation Congress, and the UN's $200,000 contribution from an
undefined trust fund. Video
Analysis here
Feedback: Editorial
[at] innercitypress.com
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USA
Tel: 212-963-1439
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Other,
earlier Inner City Press are listed here, and some are available
in the ProQuest service, and now on Lexis-Nexis.
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2006-08 Inner City Press, Inc. To request
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