Promote the Social Responsibility model for peace and development
See GalleryOpening of the CSR Session in CUMIPAZ 2017
The Session: Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) for Sustainable Development, was held during the second work day of the 3rd Peace Integration Summit, CUMIPAZ 2017 – Panama.
Government authorities, social, economic, human rights and chambers of commerce representatives, academics, representatives and CEO’s of national and international companies, responsible for the areas of CSR, leaders and experts in responsible environmental management, and international business organizations, were brought together in the Parlatino Chamber.
The session presents a new model of CSR aimed at building peace and sustainable development, a holistic approach to CSR towards happiness. Among the central themes, Ethical Leadership for generating responsible plans for building a greener, inclusive and peaceful world.
The participants work on the formation of concerted proposals, in order to generate a commitment that will be included in the Declaration of CUMIPAZ 2017.
Installation act
Gabriela Lara, director general of the Global Embassy of Activists for Peace (GEAP), explained that the objective of the session is to create awareness in the business community to implement social responsibility based and informed values and ethical principles and to promote the sustainability of Mother Earth.
“Through the Global Embassy of Activists for Peace, we understand that one of the most important objectives of this vision of doing business is precisely to promote the respect and dignity of the human being," she said.
Lara read the message of the Executive President of the GEAP and Director of CUMIPAZ, William Soto Santiago, addressed for the session. Part of his words:
"The concept of corporate social responsibility has evolved to integrate and complement a holistic approach to human rights and the rights of Mother Earth ... We see the need to address the issue of peace from an economic dimension, through the business sector as direct agents of this dimension and as a social agent capable of transforming societies; through awareness-raising for decision-making on an ethical basis".
The deputy mayor of the City of Panama, Raisa Banfield, also participated in the Installation Act. she said:
"Building peace with nature and with human beings through our economic activity; People! We have a lifelong plan to build this goal."
Banfield noted that there is resistance in changing the economic model that has made profit for decades, and emphasized that it a change necessary in both the producers and consumers to reach the balance that society requires.
The attorney for Human Rights of Guatemala, Augusto Jordán Rondas, presented an approach to corporate social responsibility, based on five points:
1. The payment of taxes, 2. The payment of living wages, 3. Denounce corruption from businesses, 4. Green policy from within each company, 5. Include women, indigenous people and people with different capacities in the list of workers.
In addition, he added that a state of legality needs and deserves a system of controls. "We also bet on an independent judiciary, because without justice there is no reason for human rights," he said.
The event presented the work done throughout 2016-2017, a result of the last edition of CUMIPAZ, Paraguay 2016; part of it is the International Alliance for CSR and Sustainable Development for Peace-Building (ARSEPAZ), which is launched this year during the session.
Among the authorities and personalities present:
• Nobel Peace Prize 2007, Rajendra Pachauri;
• The director general of UNILEVER (Central America), Ignacio Seglares;
• Humberto Grimaldo, coordinator of the Regional Observatory for Social Responsibility for Latin America and the Caribbean - UNESCO;
• Mauricio López, Executive Director of the Colombian Network of the United Nations Global Compact;
• Julio Vidal, director of HR of the Chamber of Commerce, Industry and Agriculture of Panama;
• Angela Benedetti, ambassador of Colombia to Panama.
