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At the World Economic Forum in Davos in 1999, Kofi Annan proposed that business leaders and the United Nations initiate a Global Compact of shared values and principles aimed at giving a human face to the global market. He observed that the spread of markets had outpaced the ability of political systems to adjust to them and that history taught us that such an imbalance between the economic, social and political worlds could never be sustained for very long.

He called on firms and business associations "to embrace, support and enact a set of core values in the areas of human rights, labour standards and environmental practices. He suggested that firms could promote this in the manner they conducted their own business affairs. He requested specifically that "firms should uphold and respect human rights and that you are not complicit in human rights' abuses. Do not wait for every country to introduce laws promoting freedom of association and the right to collective bargaining. You can at least make sure your own employees, and those of your subcontractors, enjoy those rights".

The Global Compact contains nine principles.

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Affiliates with questions or information about the UN Global Compact should e-mail UNI’s Campaigns& Organising Department: Neil Anderson or Alke Boessiger