While it is obviously important to encourage business to abandon unsustainable practices, it is counter-productive to congratulate corporate lobby groups on their commitment before they have taken the minimum necessary steps towards contributing to sustainable development. One such step is obviously to break with irresponsible lobbying practices, which hinder the development of effective international treaties to bring business practices in line with sustainable development. The UN has a key role to play in making it clear to international business that obstructing progress in international negotiations must be put to an end.
The credibility of the ICC`s claimed commitment to sustainable development is furthermore seriously undermined by its opposition to binding corporate accountability mechanisms. The ICC continues to promote an unbalanced and unsustainable economic model of global market deregulation in which corporate rights are carved in stone while corporate responsibilities remain voluntary. This approach has proven entirely insufficient in the decade since the Rio summit. The ICC, in its role as an early-stage co-designer of the Global Compact, has also seriously weakened that initiative by insisting on keeping it free of monitoring and enforcement. We remind you that the ICC arrogantly abandoned the Voluntary Initiatives Project of the Commission for Sustainable Development (CSD) in order to escape the inconvenient conclusions that were likely to have come out of this assessment.
The credibility of the ICC`s claimed commitment to sustainable development is furthermore seriously undermined by its opposition to binding corporate accountability mechanisms. The ICC continues to promote an unbalanced and unsustainable economic model of global market deregulation in which corporate rights are carved in stone while corporate responsibilities remain voluntary. This approach has proven entirely insufficient in the decade since the Rio summit. The ICC, in its role as an early-stage co-designer of the Global Compact, has also seriously weakened that initiative by insisting on keeping it free of monitoring and enforcement. We remind you that the ICC arrogantly abandoned the Voluntary Initiatives Project of the Commission for Sustainable Development (CSD) in order to escape the inconvenient conclusions that were likely to have come out of this assessment.