Business knows how valuable the rule of international law is in a globalized world. Business has supported the development of international law to support its investments. I challenge business to give the same support to expanding protection for human rights.
Irene Khan

Amnesty International's Secretary General has challenged the world's business leaders to step up efforts for corporate social responsibility.

Irene Khan said there was a "crisis of confidence" in society about the issue. She warned members of the UN Global Compact that the initiative - designed to encourage businesses to adopt socially responsible policies - needed more concrete action from companies to realise its potential as a protector of human rights.

"The Global Compact needs to find ways to hold participants accountable for upholding its principles.," Ms Khan told around 1,000 top business leaders in Geneva on 5 July.

She commended some companies for being "genuinely keen to learn and improve their performance" but accused others of joining the Compact as a token gesture.

"Many feel that membership of the Compact gives them an automatic seal of approval no matter what they do. It is easy to sign-up to principles when no-one will hold you accountable for implementing them," she said.

Ms Khan suggested that a "peer-review mechanism" would help the Compact progress.

"The best-performing companies can help to raise the bar by holding each other to account. It is time to scale up on compliance," she urged.

But she cautioned: "The Global Compact is a voluntary initiative. Voluntary approaches are important, but no matter how good they are, they have some inherent limitations by their nature of being voluntary: by definition they involve an "opt-in" approach (and therefore the possibility also of "opting-out" by companies). They do not -- and cannot -- deal with the so-called "laggard" companies, who will not join."

"Amnesty International, while supporting voluntary initiatives, is pressing for UN global standards on business and human rights that will apply across borders to all companies. Such global standards will provide governments with clear, common guidelines on how to address corporate behaviour on human rights. It will help to create a level playing field, set some common expectations, and build trust among customers, shareholders, investors and the community."

Ms Khan also highlighted the importance of the UN's role, saying it had "put its own reputation on the line."

"Unfortunately, there are still too many companies who are opposed to international standards to protect human rights. The Global Compact can do much to change those attitudes and approaches," said Ms Khan.

"The UN Secretary-General described it as the world’s largest global corporate citizenship initiative. If it is to truly live up to that grand title, this initiative must do more to win the confidence of the world’s citizens."

Read Irene Khan's full speech