Consultation on Children’s Rights and Business Principles Initiative

On 24 June 2010, UNICEF, the UN Global Compact and Save the Children launched a process to develop a set of Principles offering concrete guidance on what business can do to respect and support children’s rights. Currently, no such comprehensive Principles exist to guide business on the full range of actions they can take to respect and support children’s rights within their sphere of influence. Recognizing the important contribution that business can make in shaping these Principles and ensuring their relevance to business operations, the partners launched an extensive multi-stakeholder consultation process, the first of which took place in Zambia on 8 December 2010. The event, held in conjunction with the Global Compact Network, Save the Children and UNICEF, involved participants from the private sector, academia and civil society, and included discussion on the history and role of the UN Global Compact, the relationship of the Principles to the UN Convention on the Rights
of the Child (CRC) and the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child and the important role business plays in the lives of children.