At the level of national legislation there have been many attempts to predispose incentives or binding instruments to promote the social responsible behaviour of the enterprises, above all in the environmental field. But the more authoritative interventions in the matter of principles, models and reference parameters have been created at the level of the international organizations, that play, in this field, a promotional and leading role in relation either to the voluntary character of CSR, or to the transnational character of many of its application contexts. Today's panorama of CSR tools, therefore, is dominated by guidelines, vademecum, instruments and declarations of intents undertaken by enterprises and Governments, prepared by the international Organizations.
Some of the main of these instruments are listed  below, divided per reference Organisation.

• OECD

One of the primary OECD’s tasks is to support a sustainable development; therefore, many of its studies, researches and guidelines offer a range of instruments that, although not directly referring to it, have a large scope of application in CSR. Among them, in is worth mentioning:

• Guidelines Destined to the Multinational Enterprises, a non binding set of rules and principles, elaborated in 1976 and, afterwards, in the course the years, subject to several important reviews, proposed to its addressees as a conduct model functional to a sustainable development.
• Declaration on the International Investments and the Multinational Enterprises  made in 2001 by the adhering Governments, in which they undertook to promote the voluntary observance of the aforesaid Guidelines  by the enterprises;
• Policy Framework for Investment, a reference checklist, elaborated by the OECD Council in 2006, to help Governments improve the investment climate and encourage growth  and sustainable development;
• Principles of Corporate Governance, released in 1999 and revised in 2004, a non-binding set of rules and standards for the development of a corporate governance, functional to the financial market stability and to the investment and to the economic growth; 
• Risk Awareness Tool for Multinational Enterprises in Weak Governance Zones, adopted by the OECD Council in 2006, a non-binding good practices vademecum, addressing the multinational enterprises investing in Countries where the Governments have not the will or the ability to fully exercise their prerogatives, in order to guide the entrepreneurial conduct.

Furthermore, the OECD has assisted the G8 Italian Presidency in developing the Global Standard for propriety, integrity and transparency (see G8 below). This initiative complements the Global Charter proposed by the German government within the G20. Conceived by the Italian G8 Presidency in early 2009, the Global Standard aims to develop a set of common principles and standards for propriety, integrity and transparency in international business and finance, in order to ensure a more stable and sustainable development of the global economy. It includes OECD instruments such as the Anti-Bribery Convention, Principles of Corporate Governance and Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises, as well as standards and guidelines on everything from taxation and competition to development aid and public governance.

• EU

During his mandate from 1985 to 1995, Jacques Delors has been the first President of the European Commission to  officially speak about Corporate Social Responsibility. In the following years the European Union has elaborated some important policy-planning documents on CSR:

• A4-0508/98 European Parliament Resolution on EU Standards for European Enterprises Operating in Developing Countries Towards an European Code of Conduct, adopted by the European Parliament with the aim to reduce the abuses committed by the European enterprises in the developing Countries, to encourage the voluntary initiatives adopted by the enterprises, the trade unions, the and the NGOs’ associations, including codes of conduct, and to support the formation of an adequate European legal basis;
• Green Book "Promoting a European Framework for Corporate Social Responsibility, published in July 2001, in which the European Commission has provided an authoritative definition of CSR and has launched a debate on how to create a favourable European framework for the CSR, with a view to the attainment of the Lisbon Strategy goals;
• Corporate Social Responsibility: A Business Contribution to Sustainable Development, the 2002 Cmmunication of the Commission to the European Istitutions, the Member States, the social parties, the enterprises and consumers associations and to any other interested party. Articulated in six chapters, it defines the CSR concept  within the sustainable development, reassumes the outcomes of the consultation process, describes the European strategy for the promotion of CSR and makes some operational proposals.
• Implementing the Partnership for Growth, add Jobs: Making Europe a Pole of Excellence on Corporate Social Responsibility, a 2006 Communication of the Commission to the European Parliament, the Council and the Economic and Social Committee, in which it reports the outcomes of a large consultation process following the Green Book and expresses the firm conviction that CSR constitutes an aspect of the European social model, able to contribute to the sustainable development, to strengthen the Europe’s innovation and competitiveness potential and, therefore, to improve the creation of workplaces. Therefore, it invites all the interested parties, the Member States, and the enterprises to operate in partnership in order to make of Europe a pole of excellence in CSR. 
• Environment Management Systems (EMAS, Eco-label)  and related voluntary certification, to encourage the enterprises to implement, in a systematic and integrated way, the overall management of the environmental items, improving, in the meanwhile, their competitiveness.

Moreover, the EU also deploys a series of concrete activities for the promotion of the CSR. In the 2009 the European Commission hosted a plenary session of the European Multistakeholder Forum on CSR. Launched in October 2002, the Forum represents a discussion platform for the main groups of stakeholders at European level - employer associations, trade unions, organizations and entrepreneurial networks, organizations of the civil society - with the Commission. The European Alliance on CSR, instead, is an initiative launched from the European Commission in order to implement its Communication “ Implementing the Partnership for Growth, add Jobs…” ; it is an opened partnership between enterprises (about 230, today) and Commission, without a legal form and managed by the adherent entrepreneurial associations, to give political support to the initiatives improving the acquaintance and the knowledge of CSR, supporting collaboration experiences and to assuring a favourable climate to CSR. Other EU initiatives aim to encourage the implementation of CSR among the SMEs and the young entrepreneurs.

• ILO

The International Labour Organisation (ILO), founded in 1919, is devoted to promote the productive labour in conditions of freedom, fairness, safety, and human dignity, and to defend the right of the employees and of the employers to constitute their organisations for the collective bargaining. The problems connected to the multinational enterprises’ activities, in particular those relating to the definition of the relationships with the host Countries (especially in the Third World) and in the matters concerning labour and social policy, induced the International Labour Organisation (ILO) to adopt, in  1977, the

• Tripartite Declaration of Principles Concerning Multinational Enterprises and Social Policy, that is the only instrument in the matter of socially responsible practices undersigned, after long negotiations, by Governments and by representative of workers and employers, enunciating a set of  principles in the field of labour, engaging the subscribers to encourage the (multinational and non multinational) enterprises to adopt a range of effective practices related to employment, training, work and life conditions, industrial relations. The text  of the declaration has been revised in 1987, in 2000 and in 2006, in order to include further provisions and, in particular, a reference to the minimum age for admission to employment or work, with the aim to contribute successfully to the elimination of all forms of forced or compulsory labour and to secure the effective abolition of child labour.

• ONU

• Global Compact, that is the 1999 invitation to the world economy’s leaders to adhere to ten universal principles – nine at the beginning: the tenth, concerning the fight against corruption was added afterwards – in the areas of human rights, work conditions and environment, integrating them in their strategies. The instrument is inspired to broadly shared tools, such as the  Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the ILO Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work, the Rio Declaration on Environment and Development , the United Nations Convention against Corruption. It is aimed to encourage the cooperation of the main players of the sector to favour a more inclusive and sustainable economy.
• Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI), a set of principles at disposal of the institutional investors willing to take into consideration the social and environmental needs, elaborated by the United Nations Environment Programme Finance Initiative  (UNEP FI, the worldwide partnership between the UN Environmental Programme and  the financial sector) and the Global Compact, that coordinated the working group composed by the representatives of 12 Countries;
• Norms on the Responsibilities of Transnational Corporations and Other Business Enterprises with Regard to Human Rights  (draft); adopted in 2004 by the UN Commission on Human Rights  with the aim to impose to Governments and multinationals the respect of human rights; they state, among  the other things, the obligation for the multinationals to comply with the regulation of the host Regions and with the international standards in terms of environment protection, human rights, non discrimination, health, public safety, bioethics and precaution principle, pursuing the goal of a sustainable development, assuring products’ high quality and safety and; more than  this, applying the aforesaid rules in the relations with local partners and suppliers  and requiring them to do the same. Despite the document is still far from entering into force, it could be used by Governments and multinationals as a model for the promotion and the adoption of responsible conducts.

• G8

• Growth and responsibility in the world economy  is the 2007 G8 Heiligendamm Declaration in which the topics of the investments climate and of the social responsibility are treated as key factors to maximize the benefits of the trans-national investment; the private corporations and the entrepreneurial associations are invited to join to the principles contained in the OECD Guidelines Destined to the Multinational Enterprises  and the States are invited to promote them; the OECD is called for to collaborate with the ILO and the Global Compact in making a reasoned compilation of the most important standards on CSR.  

• Towards a Global Standard. In order to guarantee transparency, confidence and operation of the markets, that is fundamental to  exit from the ongoing economic-financial crisis, the G8 Italian Presidency, in the course of the G7 Financial Ministers' meeting held in February 2009, has promoted the adoption of an international " Legal Standard", a core bunch of principles and common rules, on property, integrity and transparency in the international economic activity and financial institutions. In turn, Angela Merkel, in the course of a meeting held in Berlin, in the presence of representative of ILO, WMF, OECD and WTO, launched the proposal of a " Global Chart" for a more sustainable international economy. For both projects, the main international organizations have been entrusted the task to check the main existing international instruments that can constitute the base for the creation of such standards, under the coordination of the OECD. The engagement has been confirmed by the L’Aquila G8 Summit. (July 2009).