This webinar explores how companies can engage in sport sponsorship and hospitality in a transparent and ethical manner and aims to enhance the potential for sports to be a powerful tool to support peace, human dignity, and a culture of ethics and fair-play.

This report examines the current issues around political lobbying and proposes a comprehensive framework which companies and NGOs can use to assess the responsibility of their own lobbying activities and to identify areas for improvement

Sporting events have become popular platforms for companies to enhance their visibility and connect with fans, and sport sponsorship can help companies enter new markets, shape branding and corporate image, and establish emotional connections to their products and services. The Global Compact Anti-Corruption Working Group released a guide on “Fighting Corruption in Sport Sponsorship and Hospitality” in December 2013 to provide guidance on how to enhance transparency in sport sponsorship and hospitality. This webinar discusses some of the main challenges, risks and opportunities in this area as well as provides an introduction to the guide.

The key elements of a safe and enabling environment for human rights defenders, and a effective investment and operating environment for business, are closely intertwined. Human rights and environmental defenders, journalists, lawyers, and anti-corruption campaigners are key agents of change, and they contribute greatly to safeguard human rights and the rule of law. As such, both companies and human rights defenders have a shared interest in an environment which respects the rights to freedom of expression, association and assembly, and is characterised by non-discrimination, transparent and accountable government, freedom from corruption, and respect for the rule of law. Regrettably, the operating environment for defenders is becoming increasingly restrictive and dangerous in many countries. These countries include those in which corporations, with policies on human rights, increasingly operate and invest. Jointly hosted by the UN Global Compact, the International Service for Human Rights (ISHR) and the Business & Human Rights Resource Centre (BHRRC), this webinar will provide an overview of the increasing restrictions faced by civil society and human rights defenders, explore some of the drivers and benefits of business action in their support and protection, and discuss emerging good practices related to business and human rights defenders.

Showcases leading research from brokers and investment managers to demonstrate how investors and analysts are integrating ESG factors into fundamental equity valuation.

The retention of worker identity documents is a common practice among employers and recruitment agencies in many countries and sectors around the world. The practice infringes on international human rights and can make workers vulnerable to forced labour. This note calls on business to take action to address the practice and its associated risk of labour abuse. References to relevant international standards and links to additional resources provide further guidance to business.

Explores how responsible businesses can best respect the right to privacy of customers, employees and other relevant stakeholders – whilst protecting their own legitimate legal and commercial interests. In particular, the webinar examines the challenges faced by companies operating in locations where the right to privacy is inadequately protected and/or is undermined by local law – with a focus on ‘higher risk’ sectors such as information technology and telecommunications. This includes an examination of how responsible companies are responding to state-backed mass surveillance programs in key jurisdictions – as well as the expanding use of digital surveillance in countries with poor human rights records.

Businesses are facing increasing demands from their stakeholders to be more transparent about their practices and exposure to risks related to their environmental, social, and governance (ESG) performance. Pushing against the trend for more transparency are the costs of data collection, requirements for assurance, exposure to legal jeopardy, and legitimate perceptions of reputational risk. This report navigates this ‘transparency dilemma’, to build a better understanding of the risk/return profile of transparency and thereby help companies to balance competing interests.

Businesses are increasingly being called upon to raise human rights concerns with the governments of countries in which they operate, most often by local or international civil society organisations. Businesses leaders may wonder whether and how they might address such human rights concerns, as an increasing number of companies accept the business case for integrating human rights into their core operations and into their engagement with stakeholders, including with governments. This Good Practice Note aims to bring greater clarity to this sensitive topic and provides an initial orientation to an under-explored, but increasingly pressing topic in responsible business practice.

Lawyers are increasingly expected to raise ethical and moral—as well as legal— considerations faced by their client transnational corporations as a matter of professional responsibility. In turn, they often serve a “moral leadership” role. Leadership involves perceiving challenges and opportunities just over the horizon. This Good Practice Note aims: (1) to illustrate how transnational corporations' in- house corporate counsel are perfectly situated to propel their corporations to adopt practices that ensure respect for human rights; and (2) to encourage this positive role by concisely highlighting key lessons learned and good practices.

Entities, including businesses, governments and non-profits, face an evolving landscape of environmental, social and governance (ESG)-related risks that can impact their profitability, success and even survival. This guidance is designed to help risk management and sustainability practitioners apply enterprise risk management (ERM) concepts and processes to ESG-related risks.

The issue of taxation is steadily rising on the corporate sustainability agenda. Taxes are one of the main sources of revenue for governments. They are crucial to enable governments to deliver key services to their constituents such as health, education, housing and infrastructure. While tax legislation and enforcement are government responsibilities, companies, as tax payers, also have an important role to play to meet their own human rights responsibilities and to comply with the law. Jointly hosted by the UN Global Compact and the Business & Human Rights Resource Centre, this webinar provided a briefing on the link between tax and human rights, the challenges associated and new resources that have been developed for governments, investors, businesses and NGOs on emerging best practices related to tax and human rights. The webinar featured presentations from the Business & Human Rights Resource Centre, NEI Investments/PRI Taskforce on Corporate Tax Responsibility, and ActionAid.