Presentation

UNIAPAC is an international meeting place for Christian Business Leaders. As recall the Statutes, its purpose is :
•  to study, disseminate and penetrate to the core of Christian social thinking in the light of the Gospels and within a context of international economic and social activity ;
•  to serve as a link between Christian associations of business executives across the world, to promote and facilitate exchanges between them and to furnish a common mouthpiece if and when the need arises ;
•  to support the activities of these national and regional associations ;
•  to sponsor the founding of Christian associations of business executives where none exists ;
•  more generally, to seize any opportunity and to promote any venture which will contribute to the realisation of the objectives listed above. 

What is UNIAPAC ?

UNIAPAC was born in 1931 as “Conférences Internationales des Associations de Patrons Catholiques'', between federations of Dutch, Belgian and French Catholic Employers (and with observers from Italy, Germany and Czechoslovakia), on the occasion of the 40 th anniversary of the Encyclical “Rerum Novarum” in Rome.

After World War II, UNIAPAC enlarged to other European countries and to Latin-American Countries and changed its first name for, in French, ‘ UN ion I nternationale des A ssociations PA tronales C atholiques', with the initials UNIAPAC ( 1949 ).

In 1962 , UNIAPAC becomes an ecumenical association under the new denomination ''International Christian Union of Business Executives'' , conserving its initials. By the same time, UNIAPAC gains members in Asia and in Africa.

Today , UNIAPAC welcomes member associations and individual members or companies from worldwide (with a stronger presence in Europe and Latin-America). It gathers more than 26 Associations, with more than 30 000 members.

Creation of UNIAPAC AFRICA
Further to the last Uniapac World Congress in Mexico in October 2009 to which 25 leaders of various African States could participate,  our African friends organized a conference from 24th till 27th of February 2010 in Ouagadougou (Burkina Faso) on the theme of the social Responsibility, which marked the launching of UNIAPAC Africa.
Jean-Baptiste Homsi from Cameroun is the first President for the first three years.

Since October 2009, Pierre Lecocq (France) has succeeded José Ignacio Mariscal (Mexico) as President of UNIAPAC International, with the help of the Vice-President Uniapac International and President Uniapac Latin America, Pascual Rubiani (Paraguay), and of Father Edouard Herr s.j. (Luxembourg) as Spiritual Adviser. 
Since September 2010, Pascual Rubiani has been replaced by Juan Manuel Lopez Valdivia (México) for the next three years.

The key moment in the life of UNIAPAC has always been the World Congress, that gathers hundreds of committed business executives from all continents for a rich and intense time of fraternal exchange. This Congress now takes place every three years. The last one took place from the 1st to the 2nd of October 2009 in Mexico, with the theme:

"Values to build a better world, Entrepreneurship for sustainable Development"

Just before the Congress, 25 leaders of various African States followed a 4 days training organized by Uniapac on the Social Responsibility of Companies.
The next World Congress will take place in France (Lyon) in March 2012.

It has been a daring challenge to offer each of our Associations to participate into this common document on Corporate Social Responsibilities.

The first challenge has been to tackle an issue where so much has already been said. While working on the topic, we realized that our Christian inspiration combined with our practical experience as business executives and international coverage gives us a unique point of view which we should not keep for ourselves and which can and must give a powerful and radical different innovative way of thinking and implementing Corporate Social Responsibility.

The second challenge has been to agree upon a common way of expressing our views since, although sharing the same inspiration, each of our associations has its own history, culture and environment which lead to not so easy to overcome differences. Should this document be a "profession of faith" in basic common values ? Should it deal with Spiritual Matters ? Should it be designed only for convinced practicing Christians or welcome the positive contribution of any good-willing person ? Should we keep the variety of origins and concerns visible or should we try for a uniformed neutral expression ? Should we stay on a universal theoretical field (the sources and the principles), or should we start giving practical hints for implementation ? Last but not least, where and when should we stop and deliver ?

Is there room for any new meaningful contribution ? 
First of all, members of Uniapac want to join with this trend which meets men and women's aspiration to justice and truth.
Then, based on the concrete expertise of numerous business leaders from all over the planet, we want to stress that CSR reaches all its potential when it leads to the recognition of the central role in the enterprise of each person towards the common good.

This document, written by Christian business executives from many different backgrounds, offers to the reader to discover the sources of his behavior,  the corresponding principles, and shows him an innovative way for actual implementation.
We experienced that passing from the care of groups' interests to the service of the good of the persons allows for a new business culture which gives CSR all its relevance and efficiency, and we have developed tools to make it happen.
This experience is what we want to share in this book.
 
Laurent Mortreuil, Past General Secretary of UNIAPAC.