Global Ethics Forum project workgroups

It is still possible to become a member of one or more of the 12 online workgroups launched at the beginning of October as part of the follow-up to the 2011 Global Ethics Forum conference in Geneva.

Please log in and follow the link here to make your request to join one or more of the following workgroups. 

1    Multicultural Staff Recruitment: Guidelines

2    Business Opportunities: Ethical Guidelines
3    Responsabilité Sociale des Entreprises (RSE) en Afrique Francophone

4    Business Ethics in Conflicting Legal and Ethical Systems

5    New Ethical Paradigm for Business Education
6    Ethical Stones: Certification of Precious Stones
7    A New Global Reference Currency
8    Sustainable Finance: Time Horizons from Intercultural and Interreligious Perspectives
9    Transparency in Religious Organizations
10  Media Ethics: Social Media for Peace
11  New National and Regional Business Ethics Networks
12  Directory and Collections on Business Ethics

For more information contact globalethicsforum@globethics.net. 

European Commission: New Corporate Social Responsibility Strategy 2011-2014

The European Commission approved a new European strategy on Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) for 2011-2014 on 25 October 2011.Compared to 2006, when the EU defined CSR as voluntary standards, it now describes in its new definition, “CSR as the responsibility of enterprises for their impacts on society” and as compulsory in respecting core standards “in particular the recently updated OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises, the ten principles of the United Nations Global Compact, the ISO 26000 Guidance Standard on Social Responsibility,the ILO Tri-partite Declaration of Principles Concerning Multinational Enterprises and Social Policy, and the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights. This core set of internationally recognised principles and guidelines represents an evolving and recently strengthened global framework for CSR. European policy to promote CSR should be made fully consistent with this framework”. (p.6 of the new strategy, see here: ec.europa.eu/enterprise/policies/sustainable-business/files/csr/new-csr/act_en.pdf).

This strategy shows that the European Commission is committed to continue its involvement in CSR and bringing business standards forward on a global level. Globethics.net welcomes these efforts and will further integrate it in its multistakeholder dialogue of the Global Ethics Forum 2012-2013.