In July 1994, a set of Principles for Business was launched at Caux by the Caux Round Table (CRT), an international forum of business leaders which had been meeting there since 1986.

The Principles were featured in The Financial Times, under the headline ‘The search for universal ethics’. The paper’s Management Editor, Tim Dickson, commented that it was possibly the first time that ‘a document of this kind has attracted influential supporters from Europe, Japan and the US’.

Nine years earlier, the chance of such common action seemed remote. In 1985 an article in a major Dutch newspaper, NRC Handelsblad, warned that Japan was going to ruin the European electronics industry, by offering their products way under the market value, in the same way as they had undercut the American automobile industry. It was headlined ‘The false smile of Japan’.

Frits Philips, the former CEO of Philips Electronics, and Olivier Giscard d’Estaing, vice-chairman of the management institute INSEAD in France, had both been involved in the annual industrial conferences that had been held at Caux since the early 1970s. They were so concerned about the threat of trade war that they wrote to Japanese business leaders whom they had met at these conferences and invited them to meet informally with senior business leaders from Europe and America.

The Japanese responded positively and in the summer of 1986 a delegation arrived at Caux. It included the president of Canon, Ryuzaburo Kaku, the former president of Matsushita Electronics, Toshihiko Yamashita, and the publisher of the Japan Times, Toshiaki Ogasawara.

The first meeting of the 30 participants almost ended in disaster. The Japanese had been told that Caux was known for building trust and understanding, and for encouraging people to look for what is right rather than who is right. But the European and American participants were so frustrated about Japanese trade practices that they voiced their feelings in no uncertain terms. As is their custom, the Japanese participants listened, waiting patiently until they were given a chance to respond, but by that time they were so offended that they were in no mood to continue the session.

Caux was known for building trust and understanding, and for encouraging people to look for what is right rather than who is right.

Fortunately, during the lunch break it was agreed to try a new approach. The afternoon started in small groups, with the Japanese participants speaking first. The atmosphere improved and fruitful conversations continued for the rest of the two-day meeting. At the end, the participants agreed to meet annually in Caux.

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These gatherings became known as the Caux Round Table Global Dialogues. Between them, smaller meetings took place in Japan, the US, Taiwan, Singapore, China, Mexico and various European countries, organized with the help of IofC colleagues in Japan and the US.

During these dialogues, it became clear that there was a need for business principles that would include the interests and responsibilities of all stakeholders.

There was a need for business principles that would include the interests and responsibilities of all stakeholders.

Using the Minnesota Principles (developed by the Minnesota Center for Corporate Responsibilty) as a useful base, the CRT drew up its own Principles for Business.

In the weeks following Tim Dickson’s article in The Financial Times, the CRT Secretariat in The Hague was inundated with orders for the Principles from business schools, company executives, news media and academics all over the world. As the European Coordinator of the CRT it was my (Maarten de Pous) task to respond to this avalanche of interest.

Later translated into 12 languages, the Principles laid an emphasis on identifying shared values, reconciling differing ones, and developing a ‘shared perspective on business behaviour acceptable to and honoured by all’. Tim Dickson wrote, ‘The Principles are said to be drawn from two ethical traditions: the Japanese philosophy of kyosei, described by Canon’s Ryuzaburo Kaku as “living and working together for the common good of mankind” and “human dignity” which refers to the sacredness or value of each person as an end, not simply as a means to the fulfilment of other’s purposes or even majority prescription.’

Businesses should protect.

In 1994, corporate social responsibility was already an accepted concept. But the Principles were specific about what it means for a business to go beyond shareholders’ interests towards those of all stakeholders: customers, employees, owners/investors, suppliers, competitors, communities. And they stressed that businesses should protect and, where possible, improve the environment, promote sustainable development, and prevent the wasteful use of natural resources.

Today the Caux Round Table continues as the Caux Round Table Japan and as the Caux Round Table for Moral Capitalism, based in the US. Initiatives of Change Switzerland continues to promote the heritage of the Caux Round Tables, supporting and hosting events on ethical leadership in business.

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As we were about to post this article, we received the sad news that Olivier Giscard d'Estaing, one of the co-founders of the Caux Round Table, had died at the age of almost 94 on 13 September 2021. He was a French businessman and politician, known for his role in founding and directing the INSEAD business school in Fontainebleau. 

On a visit to Japan for a CRT gathering in 1987, he told his Japanese hosts: ‘We believe in miracles. Japan has already performed two: that of her postwar reconstruction and that of her breakthrough to the position of second-biggest economy in the world. Together we now have to perform a third one  –  that of partnership in the solution of existing tensions.'

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The 7 Caux Round Table Principles for Responsible Business

Principle 1:

Respect stakeholders beyond shareholders. A responsible business has responsibilities beyond its investors and managers.

Principle 2:

Contribute to economic and social development.

Principle 3:

Build trust by going beyond the letter of the law.

Principle 4:

Respect rules and conventions.

Principle 5:

Support responsible globalization.

Principle 6:

Respect the environment.

Principle 7:

Avoid illicit activities.

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Discover the video 25 Years Caux Round Table (2012).

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This story is part of our series 75 Years of Stories about individuals who found new direction and inspiration through Caux, one for each year from 1946 to 2021. If you know a story appropriate for this series, please do pass on your ideas by email to John Bond or Yara Zhgeib. If you would like to know more about the early years of Initiatives of Change and the conference centre in Caux please click here and visit the platform For A New World.

• Photo portrait Frits Philips and Oliver Giscard d'Estaing: Rob Lancaster
• All other photos: Photographer unknown
• Video: 25 Years Caux Round Table (2012), created by www.keystoneprod.com.

Among the Somalis at Caux in 1993 were Hassan Mohamud and Ahmed Egal, both from Galkayo, one of Somalia’s most violent cities.

For decades the two clans which dominate Galkayo – the Hawiye and the Darood – have been at war. The last outbreak of conflict – in which over 40 died and hundreds were injured – was in 2016. But since then, Galkayo has seen no clashes. ‘Relationships and good neighbourliness have significantly improved,’ reported the Puntland Post in June this year. In part this is thanks to the work of Somalis inspired by Caux.  

Hassan Mohamud belongs to the Hawiye clan; Ahmed Egal to the Darood. Both opposed the regime of the dictator Siad Barre, who ruled Somalia from 1969 to 1991. Forced to flee, they each found asylum in Sweden. There Egal encountered Initiatives of Change. His change in attitude so struck Mohamud that, despite being a clan enemy, he phoned Egal and asked to meet. Long discussions resulted in their decision to work together to reconcile Galkayo.

At Caux in 1993, together with other Somalis, they drew up a list of potential peacemakers from different clans who they wanted to experience Caux. Among them was Yusuf Al-Azhari, also from Galkayo.

In the 1960s Al-Azhari had married the daughter of the Somali Prime Minister and was favoured with senior public service and diplomatic positions. Then came the coup which brought Siad Barre to power. Al-Azhari was imprisoned and tortured to the point of madness: ‘I was full of anger, hatred and depression. I was completely dehydrated, all skin and bones. I lost half my weight.

‘One night I knelt, soaked in tears, and pleaded with the Almighty Creator to give me peace and a vision to guide me. That night I was exalted spiritually in my cell. When I finally stood up, eight hours had passed. My inner voice told me that I had deluded myself. “Be honest to yourself and to those around you, and you will be the happiest person on earth.” From that day, I was freed from fear and despair. Love had been planted in my heart. Hatred evaporated. I realized that I was responsible for my past actions. I vowed to serve my fellow citizens, poor and rich.’

Be honest to yourself and to those around you, and you will be the happiest person on earth.

At the time Somalia was degenerating into chaos and poverty, and after six years Al-Azhari and his fellow prisoners were turned loose. His wife had been told that he had died, and she fainted when he arrived home, emaciated and with a beard that fell to his knees.

In the following years he attempted to fulfil his vow to serve. When Egal’s invitation reached him, he responded immediately. They met, and Al-Azhari accepted the invitation to Caux. His conviction grew that Somalia needed ‘a massive grassroots revolution where moral revival is a vehicle to reform politics, encouraging the clans to live together in peace’. In the following years, he and his colleagues brought other Somali leaders there, and their network grew.

In 2001 Mohamud joined Al-Azhari in Galkayo, and Egal followed soon after. Throughout the following years, together with their growing team, they held forums and workshops on the qualities of a peacemaker, and training courses which enable both men and women to gain employment. They asked the Somali diaspora for support, and built 22 new schools.

Conflict continued in Galkayo, but so did the efforts of the peacemakers. After the 2016 outbreak, a truce was negotiated – and it has held. Since then, international agencies have been better able to provide development support, and employment is growing.

Today people can move freely across the city, and intermarriage between the clans is growing. Now Mohamud and Egal are developing peace programmes for Galkayo’s primary schools.

Violence is not the only challenge in this arid region. In 2017 Al-Azhari rescued a group of over 140 small children from drought and famine and brought them to Galkayo. When he died in June this year, aged 80, he was still looking after 90 of these children. Mohamud has now arranged for one of his clansmen to continue the care of these children.

On a 2018 visit to Galkayo, the UN Secretary-General’s special representative for Somalia, Michael Keating, said, ‘If you can have peace in Galkayo, you can have peace anywhere in Somalia.’ That is the aim of Galkayo's peacemakers.

I realized that I was responsible for my past actions. I vowed to serve my fellow citizens, poor and rich.

• Read Refugees Think Big on Ahmed Hussen Egal (by Gunnar Wieselgren, 2003)
• Read Somali Peacebroker on Yusuf Al-Azhari (by Michael Smith, 1996)
• Read A Story of Somali Peacemaking in Diaspora (by Peter Riddell, 2013)

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This story is part of our series 75 Years of Stories about individuals who found new direction and inspiration through Caux, one for each year from 1946 to 2021. If you know a story appropriate for this series, please do pass on your ideas by email to John Bond or Yara Zhgeib. If you would like to know more about the early years of Initiatives of Change and the conference centre in Caux please click here and visit the platform For A New World.

• Photo top and teaser: Lul Kulmiya
• Photo with Khadija Mohamed: Bashir Mohamed
• All other photos: photographers not known

In July 1992, 80 Americans arrived at the Initiatives of Change Switzerland conference centre in Caux with an urgent question: how to address racism, poverty and alienation in US cities. Rob Corcoran who worked for Initiatives of Change in Richmond, Virginia, at that time, remembers.

Three months earlier, Los Angeles had exploded after the acquittal by a largely white jury of four white police officers who were caught on camera beating a Black motorist, Rodney King. Four days of riots, violence and looting had left more than 50 dead and 1,100 properties destroyed.  

Just a month before the events in Los Angeles, a group from several US cities had met in Richmond, Virginia, and agreed to work towards a public event which would directly address the issue of race, under the auspices of Hope in Cities. Still in its early stages of development, Hope in the Cities was a grassroots initiative, based in Richmond – capital of the Confederate states in the American Civil War – and inspired by Initiatives of Change. My wife, Susan, and I hosted a home where the group often met.

Richmond’s mayor, Walter Kenney, led a delegation of 22 community leaders to the conference in Caux. They included Howe Todd, a senior white city administrator, and Collie Burton, a Black community organizer who had strongly opposed Todd on policy issues. The two men had built an unexpected friendship and their new approach had stirred city-wide interest.  

At Caux, the Richmonders met with young community activists and racial equality officers from the UK, leaders of the favellas in Rio de Janeiro and former gang members from Los Angeles. They heard from Bernard Gauthier, the former chief of police of Northern France, and John Smith, an Australian Methodist minister whose ‘God Squad’ bike gang reached out to street kids, drug addicts and others in youth subcultures.

If it can’t happen in Caux, where can it happen?

At times the conference sessions were confrontational. Many participants were raw from experiences of racism. Audrey Brown Burton, who had worked in New York’s Department of Corrections, was outspoken about the issue. ‘Our criminal justice system is criminal,’ she declared, noting that Black Americans received, on average, longer sentences than whites for the same crimes.

In the face of such blunt talk many whites turned silent. Black caucuses formed and there was even a walkout in protest at one speaker. An alarmed white Britisher said to me, ‘This should not be happening in Caux.’ My response was, ‘If it can’t happen in Caux, where can it happen?’

Over the days, silence and confrontation gave way to honest conversation. Melanie Trimble, a white student from the southern US said, 'I want to ask forgiveness for my prejudice and indifference.' She said she had had good Black friends in school 'but we just didn't talk about race solutions much and I've never myself been in a place where whites and Blacks were working on race directly and being honest about it’.

One day, many of the Americans gathered to reflect on what they had experienced. Melanie urged the group to focus on themes of ‘racism, reconciliation and responsibility’. At the end of the meeting, we stood in a circle and committed ourselves to the healing of racism in America. Many of us knew that we were making a lifetime commitment.

Mayor Kenney invited the conference delegates to Richmond the following year. The Americans stated their commitment to facing ‘the agony of race, which stems from the original sin in our national soul – slavery’.

In June 1993, 500 people from cities across the USA as well as Africans, Asians, Latin Americans, Australasians and Europeans, joined Richmonders for a conference on ‘Healing the Heart of America: An Honest Conversation on Race, Reconciliation and Responsibility’. Melanie Trimble took on the formidable task of organizing logistics for the highlight of the conference: Richmond’s first walk through its history of racism and slavery.

Many of us knew that we were making a lifetime commitment.

In the following years, Hope in the Cities developed an approach to dialogue which was taken up by cities across America. Richmond created a Slave Trail Commission and is now developing a museum and heritage centre on the site of its former slave market. In 2007, Governor Tim Kaine led Virginia in becoming the first state to apologize for its role in promoting and defending slavery, and 5,000 people, including representatives from African countries involved in the slave trade, celebrated the unveiling of a reconciliation statue by Liverpool sculptor, Steven Broadbent. The universities, museums and libraries have formed a consortium to tell Richmond’s history honestly and inclusively.

I worked closely with Dr Gail Christopher of the WK Kellogg Foundation as she developed the concept for a national Truth, Racial Healing & Transformation initiative. In 2013 she brought 20 leaders of racial healing and racial justice organizations to Caux. As we walked along the terrace, she said to me, ‘This is a place where healing can take place’.

This is a place where healing can take place.

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Rob Corcoran is a trainer, facilitator, writer and racial healing practitioner. His book Trustbuilding: An Honest Conversation on Race, Reconciliation, and Responsibility has been described as a ‘visionary, compelling account of healing and change'.

More about Hope in the Cities here.

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Watch the recording of the Healing the Heart of America initiative (1993).

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This story is part of our series 75 Years of Stories about individuals who found new direction and inspiration through Caux, one for each year from 1946 to 2021. If you know a story appropriate for this series, please do pass on your ideas by email to John Bond or Yara Zhgeib. If you would like to know more about the early years of Initiatives of Change and the conference centre in Caux please click here and visit the platform For A New World.

• Photo top showing Dr Robert Tayor (left), John Smith, Audrey Burton in Caux, 1992: Rob Corcoran
• Photo Richmond's first walk: Rob Lancaster
• Photo Tee Turner at statue: Rob Corcoran
• Photo team & unveiling of statue: Karen Greisdorf
• Videos Healing the Heart of America: Initiatives of Change International

The 680 women – and some men – who packed the Main Hall of the Caux Palace for the launch of Creators of Peace 30 years ago came from 62 countries and a mind-boggling variety of backgrounds: a Mohawk clan-mother and a Russian contralto, the Queen Mother of Lesotho and a Cypriot TV actress turned politician, the First Ladies of Botswana and Uganda, a child psychologist from El Salvador, an American expert on conflict resolution.

Woman after woman spoke of the challenges facing her country – war, poverty, indigenous deaths in custody, domestic violence – and her determination to make a difference, whether at government level or the grass roots. Participants had set up schools, feeding programmes, initiatives to encourage women to vote, efforts to build bridges between host and immigrant communities. 

The initiator of this ferment of worldviews, experience and action was a Tanzanian cabinet minister and womens’ leader, Anna Abdallah Msekwa. She had been one of her country’s first female District Commissioners. In an interview in 1990, she told Ailsa Hamilton how people would complain to the Regional Commissioner that the District Commissioner was out of the office. He would say, ‘The Commissioner is there’, and they would reply, ‘But there’s only a woman!’

Later, as the country’s first female Regional Commissioner, she presented herself as a ‘visual aid’ in communities where girls were not sent to school. ‘In over a quarter of the region I went on foot, because there were no roads, and when the rains made large areas impassable, we went by canoe. I used to take my children with me sometimes just to prove I was a real woman!’

I used to take my children with me sometimes just to prove I was a real woman!

As Regional Commissioner, she championed women’s cooperatives and land rights, and recruited women for district administration. ‘Because women could now go straight to the Regional Commissioner, they developed a habit of not fearing the government.’

By 1989, when she first came to Caux, she was in the first of many Cabinet posts – the last being Minister of Health, from which she retired in 2005.

‘I have always been an outspoken person,’ she told Ailsa Hamilton, ‘but sometimes I would keep quiet when I knew I should speak out. I would think, “Why should I quarrel with so and so?” Then I went to a Moral Re-Armament (now Initiatives of Change) conference, and I realized that I had a duty to use my talent. If there are things to be said, they must be said.’ 

I realized that I had a duty to use my talent. If there are things to be said, they must be said.

The idea of Creators of Peace stemmed from her experiences at international women’s conferences during the UN Decade for Women (1975 to 1985). She had come away feeling that they did not go deep enough. ‘We forgot we were women,’ she said. ‘We didn’t talk much about peace, we just expressed our country’s political views.’

Peace, she realized, was more than the absence of war. ‘What peace can exist in an environment of abject poverty? We must create the positive element called “peace”. And that means beginning with ourselves. Women are the missing link. We see things differently from men. Even if you are on the winning side, if you have lost your children, your husband, there is no cause for a woman to rejoice.’

Women are the missing link. We see things differently.

On that first visit to Caux, Anna Abdallah Msekwa floated her vision of a women’s initiative to create peace, beginning with a conference in 1991. Women from many countries rallied around her, determined to make it happen. Amina Dikedi Ajakaiye, now the President of Creators of Peace International, remembers working with other young women in Lagos to raise money for the conference through a fashion show and singing competition. Once in Caux, they led many of the conference meetings. 

Since 1991, Creators of Peace has held ten international conferences in Switzerland, India, Australia, Uganda, Kenya and South Africa. Today its main tool is Peace Circles: small groups of women who meet over a weekend or a series of weekly meetings to explore their potential as peace creators, share their stories and plan individual or common action.

In Kenya, women from warring communities have come together; in Burundi, peace circles include development education and help women (and men) address past trauma; in Nepal, they are reaching young people in the country’s least developed areas; in Syria, they have offered a haven during war and now focus on rebuilding. Creators of Peace Circles have taken place in more than 50 countries and increasingly, since the pandemic, online.

At that first conference in Caux, Anna Abdallah Msekwa challenged the women present to 'create peace wherever we are, in our hearts, our homes, our workplace and our community. We all pretend that someone else is the stumbling block… Could that someone be myself?’ 

• For more information visit Creators of Peace International.
• Discover Creators of Peace videos on YouTube.