[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 134 (Wednesday, October 6, 1999)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E2034]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[[Page E2034]]
U.N. SECRETARY GENERAL KOFI ANNAN DISCUSSES THE INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS 
      COMMUNITY'S SELF INTEREST IN HUMAN RIGHTS AND GLOBAL VALUES

                                 ______
                                 

                            HON. TOM LANTOS

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                        Tuesday, October 5, 1999

  Mr. LANTOS. Mr. Speaker, standing at the dawn of the new millennium, 
we have an incredible opportunity to create a more peaceful, more 
humane, and more orderly world. We are entering a new era in which 
previously ignored social issues must be addressed. In today's 
increasingly globalized world, we have seen remarkable advances in 
trade and technology. The time has come, however, when the new global 
economy must embrace social responsibility.
  Mr. Speaker, the Secretary General of the United Nations, my dear 
friend Kofi Annan, addressed a number of these issues in an important 
message last month. He discussed the fundamental partnership between 
business and human rights and the importance of having international 
values and principles to guide our global economy. The United Nations 
is an extremely important element of our nation's foreign policy and it 
plays a fundamental role in enhancing respect for the rights of women 
and men around the globe as well as enhancing the value of human life.
  The Secretary General addressed these issues in a message to the 
Workshop ``Today and Tomorrow: Outlook for Corporate Strategies'' which 
was organized by the Ambrosetti firm and was held this September in 
Cernobbio, Italy, under the leadership of my friend Alfredo Ambrosetti.
  Mr. Speaker, the message of the Secretary General to the conference 
is most appropriate to consider as we face the new millennium. I offer 
the message of Secretary General Kofi Annan to be placed in the Record, 
and I urge my colleagues to give it serious and thoughtful attention.

       [Message of Secretary General Kofi Annan to the Workshop]

          Today and Tomorrow: Outlook for Corporate Strategies

       It gives me great pleasure to convey my greetings to all 
     who have gathered for the Villa d'Este workshop, which this 
     year celebrates its 25th anniversary. Congratulations on this 
     milestone.
       You have gathered to examine a global predicament that is 
     deeply ambivalent. Peace spreads in one region while violence 
     rages in another. Unprecedented wealth coexists with terrible 
     deprivation, as a quarter of the world's people remain mired 
     in poverty. Through it all we can see the contours of a new 
     global fabric taking shape. The globalization of markets, 
     technology, finance and information is defining new 
     realities, re-shaping our notions of sovereignty and 
     challenging us to reconsider many of the assumptions that 
     have guided policy-making until now.
       As you know globalization is under intense pressure. And 
     the multilateral trading system is in the line of fire. The 
     problem is not with trade or transnational companies or 
     market per se; the trading system is one of the great success 
     stories of the past half century. Rather the problem seems to 
     be that while so much has been done to make the trading 
     system the success it is, other urgent issues--such as 
     safeguarding the environment, protecting human rights and 
     ensuring labour standards--have failed to attract similar 
     attention.
       The result is a serious imbalance on the international 
     agenda. We have a global trading system with potentially 
     strong governance and a strong institution--the World Trade 
     Organization. Strong, if universal and if the most powerful 
     countries comply with the rules. Strong, also, if we avoid 
     saddling the trade regime with a load it cannot bear 
     conditionalities--and instead build bridges between trade and 
     environment, between trade and labour, between trade and 
     human rights. We need to strengthen the pillars of global 
     governance in these areas. After all, a bridge cannot rest on 
     only one pillar.
       It was with this in mind that I proposed, earlier this year 
     at the World Economic Forum in Davos, a ``Globla Compact'' 
     between the United Nations and the world business community. 
     The Compact asks the international business community to 
     advocate for a stronger Unite Nations. It asks individual 
     businesses to protect human rights within their sphere of 
     influence, support the abolition of child labour, adopt a 
     precautionary approach to environmental challenges and take 
     other such steps which, of course, also make good business 
     sense. The Compact offers a practical way forward to 
     reconciling one of the key questions in the debate on 
     globalization: how to sustain open markets while meeting the 
     soci-economic needs of societies. It envisages business doing 
     what it does best--creating jobs and wealth--while rooting 
     the global market in universal values and giving the global 
     market more of a human face.
       It may not seem fair that business should be called upon to 
     undertake such initiatives, but in today's globalizing world, 
     economic power and social responsibility cannot be separated. 
     This issue--and in particular the risk of protectionism and 
     other unwelcome interventions--will not go away unless 
     business is committed, and seen to be committed, to global 
     corporate citizenship. Just as national markets reflect the 
     values, laws and rules of a given society, so must the new 
     global economy be guided by an international consensus on 
     values and principles.
       I have been speaking of ``business'' as if it were some 
     monolithic presence in the world economy. In the end we are 
     talking to individual businessmen and businesswomen with the 
     power to influence the world for the better. Let us remember 
     that the global markets and the multilateral trading system 
     we have today did not come about by accident. They are the 
     result of enlightened policy choices. If we want to maintain 
     them in the new century, all of us --governments, 
     corporations, nongovernmental organizations, international 
     organizations--have to make the right choices now. We have an 
     opportunity to usher in an age of global prosperity 
     comparable to that enjoyed by the industrialized countries in 
     the decades after the Second World War. We will tip the 
     scales to the positive only if we work together and, in 
     particular, only if the leaders amongst us step forward and 
     do their part. In that hopeful spirit, please accept my best 
     wishes for a successful workshop.

     

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