Corporate citizen global ethic

Germain Dufour
President
Global Community WebNet Ltd.
November 5, 2014

A new global order

Global Community offers a new global order with a vision of Hope and Love away from despair and social chaos. This new global order will be better, safer, and more realistic after replacing the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights

by the Scale of Global Rights

.

To determine rights requires an understanding of needs and reponsibilities and their importance. The Scale shows social values in order of importance and so will help us understand clearly the rights of a community, its citizens, including corporate citizens. So now Global Community ethics includes a process based on the Scale of Global Rights.

Global Community ethic for a business proposed here provides no direct solution for all the extensive problems of humanity. The ethic is giving humanity the moral foundation for a better corporate citizen.

Global Community ethic for a business offers fundamental moral behaviors and irrevocable standards that every corporate citizen and, to some extent if applicable, the public at large may adapt as their own vision for life's survival on our planet. You need not be religious to make this vision yours. This vision is for all corporate citizens, regardless of their social origin, language, culture, sex, skin color, religious and non-religious. Global Community vision creates new hopes, standards, ideals and goals for corporate citizens to embrace freely, and live a life without fear.

Corporate citizens have a binding responsibility for the welfare of all humanity and care for all life on Earth. Global Community ethical grounds for a business are practical, real, and applicable for all corporate women and men of good will, religious and non-religious.

The basis of Global Community ethic for a business already exist. These ethics offer the possibility of a better corporate citizen, a global order with fairness and Justice, and a world with Hope and Love. A world where everything make sense in all areas of life, for families and communities, for races, nations and all religions.

It is Global Community challenge to develop ethics, moral directives, that can be acceptable to all Peoples for the survival of all life on our planet, and that will require sacrifices from us all. Let us remember over and over again that our primary goal and the most important principle on the Scale of Global Rights is the survival of all Life on Earth. The Scale shows social values in order of importance for humanity's survival, all Life's survival, while the Universal Declaration of Human Rights is about rights, all of them being just as important as an other. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights needs to be replaced now by the Scale of Global Rights.

Global Community ethics for a business are about how we treat others and a commitment to respect every person humanely and with dignity. For this process to work, global citizens learn to forgive, be patient and compassionate, promote acceptance, open theirs hearts to one another, and practice a culture of solidarity and cooperation. Let go narrow differences between us all for the greater good of humanity and future generations.

Morality can be derived from a standard that global citizens believe should be universal such as Global Community ethic for a business which include all lifeforms over the entire Universe.

Global Community ethic for a business aims to identify principles of right action that may be used to guide people in their lives. These principles can be used to decide whether particular courses of action, or particular types of action, are right or wrong. Ethics emphasizes respect for persons, and holds that there are certain actions that should never be done. This is what this paper is about: to describe those principles and propose a list of right actions for a business.

Wherever there are people there will be conflicts, and ethics can help to resolve conflicts. Global Community proposes that such conflicts be resolved without violence and within a framework of justice. People must commit themselves to the most nonviolent, peaceful solutions possible. This is the pathway to global peace

Modern morality is a product of evolutionary forces

Over ancient time to this day, morality in society made its way into our ways of doing business. So the set of behaviors that constitute Global Community ethic for a business evolved largely because they provided possible survival benefits to increase evolutionary success. Consequently, Peoples evolved socially to express emotions, such as feelings of empathy or guilt, in response to these moral behaviors. Humans developed truly moral, altruistic instincts. When looking across cultures of geo-cultural areas and across millennia, certain virtues have prevailed in all cultures, the major ones include wisdom, knowledge, courage, justice, love, truth, empathy, kindness, and social intelligence. These virtues were not always incorporated into the ways of doing business because the 1% business world became corrupted, greedy, no longer in line with humanity's survival on the planet, and more interested in keeping most of the wealth, resources and power for themselves keeping the remaining 99% of the world population in poverty.

But today we are going to incorporate these virtues and proper behaviors into corporate citizen global ethics.

Moral values can be identified across cultures, even if we do not accept a global understanding of principles: values including integrity, trustworthiness, benevolence, justice, and fairness. These values can be resources for finding common ground between believers and nonbelievers, and for conflicts needing of ethics to resolve their problems.

Human morality is a natural phenomenon

On the understanding that Global Community ethics are sets of self-perpetuating and biologically-driven behaviors which encourage human cooperation and symbiotical relationships, then we all can see why Global Community concepts and approaches to humanity's survival become so urgently needed today.

All social beings have modified their behaviors by restraining immediate selfishness in order to improve their evolutionary fitness. This is why humanity needs to correct the present business world and corporate citizens as most of the wealth on the planet is in the hands of the 1% of the world population while the remaining 99% of the people are badly taken avantage of and live in poverty.

Human morality, though sophisticated and complex relative to other lifeforms, is essentially a natural phenomenon that evolved to restrict excessive individualism of the 1%, including their human rights, that could undermine a group's cohesion and thereby reducing all life's survival on our planet.

After making the proper adjustment to ways of doing business in the world, morality can then be defined as an accumulation of interrelated behaviors that cultivate and regulate complex interactions within social groups. These behaviors includes empathy, reciprocity, altruism, cooperation, a sense of fairness, symbiotical relationships, and have been included directly into the corporate citizen global ethics.

The fundamental criteria of a global symbiotical relationship

The fundamental criteria is that a relationship is created for the good of all groups participating in the relationship and for the good of humanity, all Life on Earth. The relationship allows a global equitable and peaceful development and a more stable and inclusive global economy.

As it happens in Nature, symbiosis is also a common feature in human society.

Global Community has begun to establish the existence of the age of symbiotical relationships and global cooperation. There has always been symbiotical relationships in Nature, and between Souls and the matter of the Universe to help the formation of Life on Earth and on other planets to better serve God

.

Symbiotical relationships are needed today for the long term future of humanity and for the protection of Life on Earth.

Global citizens are civilized people and so the expression "global symbiotical relationship" needs to be defined to include ethics.

In the context of the global civilization of the 3rd Millennium

we have defined that any symbiotical relationship is for the good of all, for the good of the 'other'. It is based on a genuine group concern and unconditional support for the individual's well-being ~ a giant leap in human behaviour. The question is how can we improve the political and business symbiotical relationships to fulfill the fundamental criteria? Global Community promotes values and principles to achieve the fundamental criteria and that requires the promoting and establishment of: global community ethics, mutual respect, respect for Life, basic liberties, justice and equity, caring for the 'other', integrity, responsibility and accountability. Those very important values were also included into the corporate citizen global ethics.

Other symbiotical relationships may be based on common concerns and issues such as: the environment, peace, justice, women's rights, global rights, and many more. There is a whole spectrum of possible symbiotical relationships: geographical, economical, social, business-like, political, religious, and personal. Other types may be created all over the world between communities, nations, and between people themselves.

Let just make sure they all satisfy the fundamental criteria of a symbiotical relationship.

The greatest happiness of the greatest number is a measure of right and wrong

How can we be sure that the corporate citizen global ethics proposed here are truly what is needed for humanity's survival?

In society, the proper course of action is one that maximizes the greatest happiness of the greatest number which gives us a measure of right and wrong. What matters is the combined positive effect of everyone and not only of any one person and "not only of the 1% of the population in control of most of the wealth and power".

Over the past decades, a Global Dialogue

was organized every day of every year to probe the world about what may be the best vision to follow for humanity's survival this century. Results obtained have shown clearly that a significant part of the world population has approved a global ethic with the Scale of Global Rights as being the proper guide for this generation and next ones this century.

Developing ethics that would save humanity from extinction will encounter numerous criticisms from individuals whose basic human rights were violated. But that is to be expected! And there is no other way! Global Community has researched and developed the Scale of Global Rights

to continue this process. On the Scale of Global Rights, primordial human rights and the protection of the global life-support systems and ecological rights are on top of the Scale. They are the most important aspects on the Scale. Applying the Scale into our ways of life will require sacrifices from people whose human rights were violated because social values have different degrees of importance on the Scale. But this process is necessary because the 1% of the world population already violated the basic human rights of most people on Earth.

All lifeforms are an important part of Global Community ethics

Now Global Community claims that all lifeforms are important and included as part of global ethics. It is not just about 'humanity survival' but about 'all lifeforms survival' we are fighting for. This is morally right for humanity's survival because each of us depends on the well-being of the whole, and so global citizens have respect for the community of living beings, for people, other lifeforms, and plants, and for the preservation of Earth, the air, water and soil.

Professions are expected to develop up-to-date codes of ethics with specific guidelines in line with the Scale of Global Rights

Corporate citizen global ethics should be consistent with the requirements of morality governing society. If improving survival of all life on our planet is given a moral priority in society, it must also be a moral priority to the corporate citizen, and it may be justifiable to contravene other moral demands in order to meet this goal. Because there are different moral codes that apply to different sections of society and differences in codes between societies, problems will arise when the Scale of Global Rights is applied as a basis of global ethics. The Scale was given a moral priority. So rights lower on the Scale may be affected negatively.

Global citizens may be asked to make sacrifices concerning human rights categorized as less important on the Scale of Global Rights. This would happen only to give the greater good a moral priority and success.

Professions such as scientists, physicians, business people, journalists, and politicians, are expected to develop up-to-date codes of ethics with specific guidelines in line with the Scale.

Global Community Ethic for a business

Certified Corporate Global Community Citizenship (CCGCC)

Global ethic for a business must always be grounded in realities.

1. As a business you may:

a)     be a corporate eco-friendly
b)     be a socially responsible investor
c)     have taken the challenge of a more integrated approach to corporate responsibility by placing environmental and community-based objectives and measures onto the decision-making table alongside with the strategic business planning and operational factors that impact your bottom-line results
d)    provide not only competitive return to your shareholders but you also operate your business in light of environmental and social contributions, and you have understood the interdependence between financial performance, environmental performance and commitment to the community
e)     have taken a full life-cycle approach to integrate and balance environmental and economic decisions for major projects
f)     have an active Environmental, Health and Safety Committee and integrated codes of conduct, policies, standards and operating procedures to reflect your corporate responsibility management
g)     have scored high on categories such as:

* environmental performance
* product safety
* business practices
* help small business in the least developed countries
* commitment to the community
* abolition of child labour
* eliminate discrimination in respect of employment and occupation
* employee relations and diversity
* effective recognition of the right to collective bargaining
* corporate governance
* share performance
* global corporate responsibility
* against corruption in all its forms, including extortion and bribery
* health, safety and security
* provided help to combat diseases at home and abroad
* uphold the freedom of association
* audits and inspections
* emergency preparedness
* corporate global ethical values
* ensured safe working conditions
* standards of honesty, integrity and ethical behaviour
* elimination of all forms of forced and compulsory labour
* in line with the Scale of Global Rights
h)     support a balance and responsible approach that promotes action on the issue of climate change as well as all other issues related to the global life-support systems:

* primordial global rights deterioration
* global ocean acidification
* global warming
* Ozone layer depletion
* wastes of all kind including nuclear and release of radiation
* climate change
* species of the fauna and flora becoming extinct
* losses of forest cover and of biological diversity
* the capacity for photosynthesis
* the water cycle and fresh water use
* food production systems
* genetic resources
* Oxygen supplies
* change in land use and lost of agricultural soils
* phosphorus and nitrogen cycles
* chemicals produced for human use and not found in nature and, eventually, reaching the environment with impacts on Earth's waters, soils, air, and ecology

As a business you may have scored high on all of the above challenges but Global Community wants you to take on even greater challenges in line with Global Community ethic for a business.

2. Checks and balances

In the past, corporations ruled without checks and balances. Now, global ethics will be a basic minimum to do business, and there will be checks and balances. Our judgement will be based on global ethics. Global ethics must always be grounded in realities. But realities are changing constantly and are different in different places. We live in a world that makes progress toward democracy. Ethics and morality exist only when human beings can act freely.

In our free society, rights are tied to responsibilities. Corporations are committed to improvement in business performance and want to be seen as 'good corporate citizens' on a local and a global scale. Corporations have social responsibilities as they are an integral part of society. Global ethics recalls that those realities, on which others build upon, have to be protected first. Global Community has found evident that universal values and the Scale of Global Rights as described above were the foundation of global ethics for a business.

3. Corporate citizen global ethic

Global Community has now at hand the method and framework to conduct societal checks and balances based on a method reinforcing global ehtics for a business. A more balance world economy will result of annual checks and balances. Corporations will take their social responsibilities and become involved in designing, monitoring, and implementing these checks and balances. Several corporations have already done so. Results will be taken into account in the evaluation of a global ethic for a business. Corporations are required to expand their responsibilities to include global rights, the environment, community and family aspects, safe working conditions, fair wages and sustainable consumption aspects.

A corporation will now be required to operate its business as per global ehtics for a business:

*    Be concerned with issues such as climate change, bio-diversity, pollution prevention and adopt high standards
*     Minimize environmental degradation and health impacts
*    Be responsible for the environmental impact of its products and services throughout their cycle
*     Adopt a wide environmental code, and policies, health and safety practices and procedures aimed at reducing resource and energy use in each stage of a product or service life-cycle
*     Set up appropriate management systems to implement policies
*     Conduct annual checks and balances and provide reports to the community
*     Respect the political jurisdiction of national communities
*     Respect human rights, social and cultural rights
*     Recognize its political and economic impact on local communities
*     Contribute to the long-term social, cultural, environmental and economic sustainability of the local communities
*     Respect the rights of indigenous peoples, their culture and land, and their religious and social customs; provide employment and training opportunities
*     Ensure that each employee is treated with respect and dignity and is not subjected to any physical, sexual, psychological or verbal harassment or abuse
*     Respect employees' right to freedom of association, labour organization, and free collective bargaining
*     Provide equal pay for work of equal value to women and men
*     Recognize the responsibilities of all workers to their families, and provide for maternity leave, and paternity leave
*     Ensure that their be no barriers to the full participation of women within the company
*     Participate in the creation of child care centres and centres for the elderly and persons with disabilities where appropriate
*     Ensure no discrimination on grounds of race, ethnicity, or culture
*     Ensure that persons with disabilities who apply for jobs with the company receive fair treatment and are considered solely on their ability to do the job; provide resources and facilities which enable them to achieve progression in employment in the company
*     Provide training to all employees to conduct their activities in an environmentally responsible manner
*     Work with organizations concerned with children's rights, human rights and labour rights to ensure that young workers are not exploited
*     Ensure that a mechanism is in place to address ethical issues of concern raised by employees
*     Make sure that the company's policies balance the interests of managers, shareholders, employees, and other affected parties
*     Adhere to international standards and protocols relevant to its products and services
*     Adopt marketing practices which protect consumers and ensure the safety of all products
*     Conduct or support research on the environmental impacts of raw materials, products, processes, emissions and wastes associates with the company and on the means of minimizing such adverse impacts
*     Make a sustainable use of renewable natural resources such as water, soils and forests
*     Conserve non-renewable natural resources through efficient use and careful planning
*     Conserve energy and improve energy efficiency of internal operations and of the goods and services being sold

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