Irish businesses were today urged by the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights to work against discrimination in the workplace
Addressing business students today in University College Dublin on "ethical globalisation", Mrs Mary Robinson highlight the failure of companies here to become involved in the UN’s Global Compact initiative.
The Global Compact, a voluntary initiative introduced in July 2000, calls on business leaders, trade unions and NGOs to unite behind a set of values for human rights, labour standards and the environment
Mrs Robinson said several hundred companies around the world had responded to the initiative, adding: "There are, I must note, no Irish companies to date involved and obviously I would like to see that changed."
In her lecture to the Smurfit School of Business, Mrs Robinson said it was time to take on a new approach to globalisation to recognise a shared responsibility for the protection of human rights.
Outlining the concept of this "ethical and sustainable form of globalisation", she reminded students "human rights are more than just good ideas or distant goals to work towards".
Mrs Robinson called on Irish students to help to realise the concept of "ethicial globalisation" by becoming part of the Global Compact Learning Forum.
She said her office would support students in their efforts to create a European network of business schools to promote the responsibilities of international corporate citizenship such as the technological gap between the developing and the developed world.