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Preliminary Documents

Round table on "Business and society: mechanisms of interaction" documents


International Forum of Non-Governmental Organizations “Civil G8 – 2006”
Moscow International Trade Center, 3 & 4 July 2006
The aim of the Forum is to discuss subjects related to the upcoming G8 summit in Saint-Petersburg (July 2006)
and to enlarge points elaborated at NGO Forum (March 2006).


Business and society: mechanisms of interaction

The purpose of the round-table is to commend further steps and actions to reinforce the corporate social responsibility matters.


PART 1: Business and Society: Mutual Responsibility

1.1
- Developing countries: facing the social challenges.
- Business and Society: in search for mutual understanding.
Social challenges ask us if the world is on track. It is clearly not, although questions on basic education, gender inequality, living conditions, suffering from diseases and shocking poverty has risen higher on the international agenda and there are many other questions open. On the other hand it still seems a fact that many politicians prefer the rhetorical approach on the importance of facing social challenges instead of acting. Therefore, the social and ethical role of enterprises has come under increasing scrutiny. However, not everyone approves of the way enterprises treat corporate social responsibility: they ask business to do more.
1.2
- Identifying acceptable standards of social partnership.
- Business and Government: who is responsible for social demands and how to get the balance right?

Social partnership grows from a consensus among the key actors - business and government - as a single group could not satisfactorily address the challenges facing society and to deliver social and economic benefits for all. The question is how to define the areas of responsibility and how to get the balance right as the developing countries are usually characterized by the fragile social, economical and political structures.

1.3
- National governments: create or impose rules for Business in Society?
- Voluntary social reporting.

Should governments make business more socially oriented using economic drivers? Should business be encouraged to create value in society? Whether national governments should be creating or imposing rules on corporations?


PART 2: Developing a Balanced Approach to Social Partnership

2.1
- The Role of Trade, Investment and Financing Agreements in Advancing or Retarding Progress toward Sustainable Development and Human Rights.

The purpose of this section is to clarify the situation with the rules that governments are required to adopt as conditions of financing, trade and investment agreements for business. These rules shift power from governments to corporations and create the growing friction between business and civil society.

2.2
- Business and human rights: guidelines for multinational companies.

There is a believe that the responsible businessman is the driving force for sustainable economic development as well as for providing resources needed to meet social calls, including the improvement of human rights. Therefore, the issue is to improve the ability of all actors – governments, business and society - to work out the path towards their effective implementation and protection of the fundamental human rights.

2.3
- Social investments: international approaches.
- Implementation and best practices of Corporate Social Responsibility in enterprises.
The purpose of this section is to analyse the implementation and practices of CSR in enterprises in different countries. The overall aim is to show to what extent companies had developed models of best practices around the issue of working and employment conditions as well as to see how business integrate social and environmental concerns into business models. This may give us a very thorough picture of current attitudes to corporate social responsibility in enterprises.






2nd International Forum of Non-Governmental Organizations
Moscow
International Trade Center
July 3-4 2006

Round-table
Business and society: mechanisms of interaction

Agenda for July 3rd 2006.

8.00 – 9.00
Registration

9.30 – 10.30
Plenary meeting: “Civil G8: on interaction between the G8 and the NGOs in 2006”. Speaker: Pamphilova, the coordinator of the national working consultative council

10.30 – 11.00
Break

11.00 – 13.00
Working groups
Round-table “Business and society: mechanisms of interaction”.

Section 1: Business and Society: Mutual Responsibilities

1.1
- Developing countries: facing the social challenges.
- Business and Society: in search for mutual understanding.

1.2
- Identifying acceptable standards of social partnership.
- Business and Government: who is responsible for social demands and how to get the balance right?

1.3
- National governments: create or impose rules for Business in Society?
- Voluntary social reporting.

Section 2: Developing a Balanced Approach to Social Partnership

2.1
- The Role of Trade, Investment and Financing Agreements in Advancing or Retarding Progress toward Sustainable Development and Human Rights.

2.2
- Business and human rights: guidelines for multinational companies.

2.3
- Social investments: international approaches.
- Implementation and best practices of Corporate Social Responsibility in enterprises.

13.00 – 13.30
Briefing

13.30 – 14.30
Lunch

14.30 – 19.30
Working groups
Working-out recommendations

Expert opinion

Halter Marek

02.12.06

Halter Marek
Le College de France
Olivier Giscard d’Estaing

02.12.06

Olivier Giscard d’Estaing
COPAM, France
Mika Ohbayashi

02.12.06

Mika Ohbayashi
Institute for Sustainable Energy Poliñy
Bill Pace

02.12.06

Bill Pace
World Federalist Movement - Institute for Global Policy
Peter I. Hajnal

01.12.06

Peter I. Hajnal
Toronto University, G8 Research Group


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