UNIAPAC is an international meeting place for Christian Business Leaders. Its goal is to promote, in the light of the Christian Social Teachings, a vision and a deployment of Corporate Social Responsibility serving people and the common good of the World.

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.

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.

Since November 2006, José Ignacio Mariscal (France) has succeeded Etienne Wibaux (France) as President of UNIAPAC International, with the help of two Vice-Presidents: Luis Riva (Argentina), and Pierre Lecocq (France), and of Father Edouard Herr SJ (Luxemburg) as main spiritual adviser and Benoit Bonamy (France) as General Secretary.

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 25th to the 27th of May 2006 in Lisbon, with the theme:

"Empowering business leaders to serve mankind in the modern world"

"How to improve a responsible leadership as Christian executives in a complex global world?"

THE PROFIT OF VALUES

 

 


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, General Secretary of UNIAPAC.

 

 



UNIAPAC general secretariat:
24 rue de l’Amiral Hamelin 75 116 Paris, FRANCE.
Phone: +32 473 94 50 16 or +33 6 62 47 13 79
Fax: +33 1 47 27 43 32.
e-mail: info@uniapac.org