CSR Press Release

NEW YORK, January 11, 2007—Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon addressed the New York business community yesterday at an event hosted by the UNA-USA Business Council for the United Nations and the Association for a Better New York. In his first speech outside of the United Nations as Secretary-General, Ban proclaimed: “The United Nations and business need each other.”

Stressing that business, trade and investment are “essential pillars of peace and prosperity”, the Secretary-General confirmed that the United Nations must engage more fully with non-state actors in order to bring about a prosperous, more secure and peaceful world. According to Ban, in today’s inter-dependent world business and the UN share common goals of “building and supporting strong economies and communities, providing opportunities for people to pursue a livelihood, and ensuring that everyone can live in dignity”.

Secretary-General Ban deemed the Global Compact as central to the United Nations’ engagement with the private sector. He stated that widespread social and economic gains can result when business engages in responsible practices which respect human rights, ensure safe workplaces, exercise environmental care and are not corrupt. The Secretary-General concluded his remarks by calling on business “to advance universal principles within your spheres of influence”.

Link to: “Secretary-General's address to the UNA-USA Business Council for the United Nations and the Association for a Better New York”

About the UN Global Compact

The UN Global Compact is the world's largest voluntary corporate citizenship initiative with thousands of participants located in over 100 countries. As a multi-stakeholder initiative, the UN Global Compact brings together all relevant actors – government, business, workers and civil society – to advance universal principles in the areas of human rights, labour standards, the environment and anti-corruption. For more information, please visit: www.unglobalcompact.org.

For more information, please contact:

For more from this organization: