Capitalists of the world unite! More than 1,000 companies gathered recently in New York to review progress on the United Nations Global Compact. The group seeks to build business practices that align with universal best practices in the areas of human rights, labour, environment and anti-corruption.

Have they made a difference? Many companies are still only taking action after getting caught doing the opposite of Google's prescription, "don't be evil". But there may at least be the beginning of a happy trend, according to UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Mary Robinson:

More and more companies now see how respecting human rights cannot only help avoid risk but can also contribute to good community and employee relations.

For many companies, the first step in that process involves developing a publicly stated policy on human rights. A still small but steadily growing number of firms from a range of business sectors and regions have adopted human rights policy statements to guide their efforts -- Canadian firms that have done so include Barrick Gold, EnCana, Kinross, Nexen, Petro-Canada and Talisman. The non-profit Business & Human Rights Resource Centre, the world's leading source of information in this area, keeps a running list of such policies.

Canadian firms get top billing as the do-gooders of the universe. Naturally.