Who said what in July 2009

“The integrity of the Compact is another paramount concern. I rely on the [Global Compact] Board for guidance about ensuring the accountability of participant engagement. The Compact is voluntary in nature, providing a forum for learning and dialogue to advance United Nations goals. It was never meant to be a sanction-based initiative, which I understand might be a disappointment to some. I trust you will work together to ensure that the accountability of the Compact is consistent with its mandate and resources.” - UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, in a message to the Global Compact Board.

“In registering a formal complaint against PetroChina with the Global Compact, these civil society groups miss the Compact's main contextural / philosophic foundation: that becoming the best corporate citizen an organization can be is a Process... and that this process - to be effective - must permit organizations to be ‘less than perfect’ at the beginning of their journey to optimal corporate citizenship behavior.” - Steve Brant, independent researcher, theorist and speaker, in a comment on the complaint against CNPC / PetroChina.

“[…] with regard to established human rights bodies and initiatives such as the Global Compact, current corporate conduct demonstrates it is time to grow some teeth.” - Tabasum van Til, in an article about the complaint against CNPC / PetroChina and the double-faced nature of China’s state owned enterprises.

“As explained, we feel very strongly that Annex A [of the ISO 26000 standard] should not contain a reference to the Global Compact. But since our request for removal of the Global Compact reference from this annex has repeatedly been misconstrued as a general disapproval of ISO 26000, we wanted to emphasize that this is simply not the case.” - Georg Kell, executive director of the Global Compact, in a letter to the secretary-general of the International Organization for Standardization (ISO).

“Impressive as this start is, the Global Compact has significant shortcomings that threaten its future. […] Unless the quality of participants is placed above quantity, the Compact will ultimately fail to instill the norms embedded in its ten principles in the world market in any meaningful sense.” - Professor emeritus Robert W. Nason, in an article published in the Journal of Macromarketing.

“In light of your last e-mail to me, which indicates that you have no intention of abiding my request to stop using the Global Compact name inappropriately and undermining the initiative in India, we are left with no option but to remove your entity's name from our list of participants. This is effective immediately.” - Georg Kell, executive director of the Global Compact, notifies Suresh Pramar that his organization, the Global Gandhian Trusteeship and Corporate Responsibility Foundation, is no longer a participant in the Global Compact.

© Photo by Dick Verton.