Prof. John Ruggie on businesses and human rights. 2013_CPIBrochure_EN.pdf. Transparency International - the global coalition against corruption. Six Questions on the Cost of Corruption with World Bank Institute Global Governance Director Daniel Kaufmann. Forced labour, human trafficking and slavery. Are there really 21 million slaves worldwide? 10 March 2014Last updated at 17:53 ET By Ian Muir-Cochrane BBC News Some Caribbean nations are demanding reparations from Europe over the Atlantic slave trade. But slavery still happens today - film director Steve McQueen said at the Academy Awards there are 21 million slaves worldwide. Is that figure correct? The figure mentioned by McQueen in his Best Picture acceptance speech at the Academy Awards comes from the UN's International Labour Organisation (ILO), which has been producing a global figure for nearly 10 years.
The kind of slavery depicted in McQueen's film, 12 Years a Slave, is long gone, although the legacy of the slave trade lives on - claims for reparations are reportedly being made by 15 former colonies against eight European countries. Its definition of this is "work or service which is exacted from any person under the threat of a penalty and for which the person has not offered himself or herself voluntarily". Continue reading the main story Top 10 countries Read full report. GuidingPrinciplesBusinessHR_EN.pdf. Homepage | Business & Human Rights Resource Centre. Guidelines for MNEs - OECD. United Nations Global Compact. A question of ethics. What is ethics? Ethics is concerned with what society considers to be right or wrong. It therefore relates to standards of behaviour. At first this may appear to overlap with one purpose of law, in that law seeks to address behaviour of which society disapproves. However, ethical principles may be adopted that discourage behaviour that is undesirable but legal.
For example, during the expenses scandal that arose in the UK in 2009 regarding claims for reimbursement by politicians, one politician responded to criticism by stating that she had done nothing illegal. This rather missed the point, as the general public may still regard legitimate expenses claims as inappropriate, and therefore unethical. Ethics lacks the certainty usually provided by the law, as individuals may consider some things that are legal to be unethical. All professions rely on their practitioners adopting not only legal but ethical standards. Approaches to ethics Ethical behaviour may be defined in terms of duties. Podcast: Ethics.