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Children's Rights and Business
Business impact and responsibility towards human rights has long been a concern for NGOs, and since the development of the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGP) considered an important factor in reaching rights compliance and development. Save the Children has been engaged in the issues for quite some time, an engagement that was formalized in 2012 with the publishing of the Children's Rights and Business Principles (CRBP).
The UNGP stands on the “Protect, Respect, Remedy”-framework that sets forth three fundamental principles when it comes to the fulfilment of rights;
- The state duty to protect against human rights abuses by third parties, including business, through appropriate policies, regulation, and adjudication;
- The corporate responsibility to respect human rights, which means to act with due diligence to avoid infringing on the rights of others and to address adverse impacts that occur; and
- Greater access by victims to effective remedy, both judicial and non-judicial
The UNGPs are not singling out any rights or groups, but lays the ground for all rights of all individuals, and stating that extra concern should be given to those that run a higher risk of not enjoying ther rights.
Save the Children has developed several tools and guidelines offering the possibility to advocate for and reach change in terms of business impact on children’s rights. This goes through capacity building within civil society and children themselves, creating awareness on CR&B-related violations towards children’s rights, advocating change in policy towards the state and their duty of protect children’s rights, and influence business in changing their behavior in relation to impact on children’s rights. Besides the UNGP, the General Comment no. 16 to the Convention on the Rights of the Child (on State obligations regarding the impact of the business sector on children's rights) and the CRBP offers more guidance on how change can be reached for children and their rights by addressing change in corporate behavior – on the one hand through state obligations and on the other through private sector acknowledging and understanding business responsibility.
Photo: Mark Kaye/Save the Children
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Providing Decent Work for Young Workers, Parents and Caregivers
Principle 3 of the Children’s Rights and Business Principles (CRBPs) indicates that all businesses should provide decent work for young workers, parents and caregivers. This webinar will explore how companies can commit to supporting children’s rights by
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Powerpoint presentation on children's rights and business- General Comment on Child Rights and the Business Sector
A Powerpoint presentation by Save the Children about consultations with children and adolescents that gives some background on the drafting process of the General Comment on Child Rights and the Business Sector. This presentation can be used as a useful s
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Listen up, business leaders! Children on how businesses impact their lives
The views from children in this booklet developed by Save the Children Sweden, are taken from several consultations with children about corporate social responsibility, the Children’s Rights and Business Principles and from child rights reporting, especia
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Introducing Save the Children Sweden's Tool "Guide for the Civil Society to work with the private sector in favour of children's rights"
Save the Children Sweden invited its partners in the Latin America and Caribbean region to a two-day workshop in Lima, Peru, 7-8 August 2013. The main goal was to share experiences and test tools for civil society to work with the private sector in favour
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Child Responsive Budgeting in South Sudan: A guide for policy makers and child focused organizations
The world's youngest country, South Sudan, gained independence in 2011 after years of civil war. But despite improvements in South Sudan since its independence, the situation of children remains critical, with most children having limited or no access to
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Responsible Business in Development: Our call to the next UK government
This is Save the Children UK's call to the next UK government on responsible development in business. The private sector, comprising a huge variety of domestic and multinational businesses, is critical to the delivery of the next human development framewo
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Childrens Rights and Business Principles summary
This document briefly summarizes the 10 Children’s Rights and Business Principles. The principles identify a range of actions that all businesses should take to respect children’s rights, to prevent and address any adverse impact on children’s rights, and
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Children and Adolescents' Contributions to the Draft General Comment on Child Rights and Business Sector
Young people from Argentina, Bangladesh, Costa Rica, Kenya, Paraguay, Sudan and Tanzania were invited to review and share their feedback on the draft version of the Committee on the Rights of the Child's General Comment on Child Rights and Business Sector
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Doing good work for us children. Children and Adolescent’s Contributions to the draft General Comment on Child Rights and Business Sector
A report from Save the Children on the extensive consultations held with children and young people from Asia, Latin America and Africa concerning the draft General Comment on Child Rights and the Business Sector. The express aim of the consultations was t
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Minutes Report of International Seminar "The impact of business on the rights of the child". Lima, August 6-7, 2013
A report on the international seminar “The Impact of Businesses on the Rights of the Child” held in Lima, Peru, August 6-7, 2013. The two-day seminar, co-organised by UNICEF and Save the Children, tackled various topics related with business impact on ch
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Children's Rights & Business Principles: Taking stock one year on. World Child & Youth Forum, Stockholm, Sweden (March 22, 2013)
This report summarizes the discussions from The Third World Child & Youth Forum (WCYF) under the theme "Children's Rights- any of your business?", which took place at the Royal Palace of Stockholm, 22 March 2013, in the presence of Their Majesties the Kin
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Children are Everyone's Business: Workbook 2.0: A guide for integrating children's rights into policies, impact assessments and sustainability reporting
‘Children Are Everyone’s Business: Workbook 2.0’ is a comprehensive tool designed to guide companies through the ongoing process of learning about and integrating children’s rights into business policies and management processes. It follows and builds on