children’s rights and business pocket guide · the objective of unicef’s agenda on children’s...
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There are more than 2.2 billion children under 18 in the world – that is almost 1/3 of the global population.
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The objective of UNICEF’s agenda on Children’s Rights and Business is to…
CONNECT
INSPIRE
CREATE
business, governments, academics, and experts in children’s rights and corporate sustainability
awareness, action and innovation for children
visibility and action for respect and support of children's rights in the workplace, marketplace and community.
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Business has significant direct and indirect impacts across the whole spectrum of children’s rights. As a result, business has a responsibility to respect children’s rights, and the opportunity to be a powerful advocate and supporter of children’s rights through core business practices.
A responsibility to respect and a commitment to supportThe corporate responsibility to respect – avoiding any infringement of the human rights of others, including children, and addressing any adverse human rights impact with which the business is involved. The corporate responsibility to respect applies to direct and indirect impacts linked to business operations, products and services, and business relationships, including employees, suppliers, customers and other partners.
RESPECT
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A commitment to supportThe corporate commitment to support – in addition to respecting human rights, voluntary actions that seek to advance human rights, including children’s rights, through core business operations, products and services, strategic social investments and philanthropy, advocacy and public policy engagement, and working in partnership and other collective action.
SUPPORT
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1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Mee
t th
eir
resp
onsi
bilit
y to
res
pec
t ch
ild
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’s r
igh
ts
and
com
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and
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The
Chi
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n's
Rig
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& B
usin
ess
P
rinci
ples
POLICY
COMMITMENT
DU
E DILIG
ENCE REM
EDIA
TIO
N
Principle 1:Child Rights Integration
Principle 2: Child labour
Principle 4: Child protection & safety
Principle 10: Community & government effortsPrinciple 9:
EmergenciesPrinciple 8: Security
Principle 7: Environment & land
Principle 3: Young workers, parents & caregivers
Principle 5: Products & services
Principle 6: Marketing & advertising
TH
E M
AR
KE
TP
LA
CE
THE
WO
RK
PL
AC
E
THE COMMUNITY & THE ENVIRONMENT
Putting the Children's Rights & Business Principles into practice
A corporate journey to integrate children’s rights into policies and processes
1. Policy commitment
2. Assessing impacts
3. Integration and action
4. Tracking performance and reporting
5. Remediation
Respect and support
children’s rights
3. ReportingReporting on performance
1. Policy commitmentIncorporating children’s rights into company policies and codes of conduct
2. Assessing and Integration
Assessing performance and identifying actions
for improvement
WorkbookSummarizing the guidance provided in the UNICEF tools in support of implementing the Children’s Rights and Business Principles
UNICEF tools in support of the corporate journey
For more information, contact Ida Hyllested at [email protected]
TOOL 1WORKBOOK• The Workbook outlines a framework for companies to better
operationalize their respect and support for children’s rights in the workplace, marketplace and community, in alignment with broader efforts to implement the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights.
• For each of the Children’s Rights and Business Principles, the workbook provides summarized information on how companies can:
– Learn about and better understand relevant child rights issues
– Determine the contexts where child rights risks or opportunities may be more prevalent.
– Assess critical areas of impact on children’s rights, and identify actions for improvement.
– Take action to integrate children’s rights based on impact assessment findings.
– Report on child-rights related performance.
• It provides links to supplementary resources such as sector-specific guidance, tools, recommendations and background materials relevant to each Principle.
TOOL 2POLICY COMMITMENTThe Children’s Rights in Policies and Codes of Conduct tool recommends ways for all businesses to incorporate children’s rights into their corporate policies and codes of conduct, based on the Children’s Rights and Business Principles.
• Part 1 provides guidance on the process of integrating child rights elements into corporate commitments in order to establish expectations for personnel, suppliers, customers and other business partners.
• Part 2 outlines the elements that all companies should consider integrating into their human rights and other policies, under Principle 1. It also includes policy recommendations to be considered based on a company’s particular direct and indirect impacts, under Principles 2–10. The second part also summarizes when and how companies should develop a stand-alone child protection policies or codes of conduct.
TOOL 3ASSESSING & INTEGRATION• The Children’s Rights in Impact Assessments tool is designed to guide
companies in assessing their aspirations and performance for respecting children’s rights and their commitment to support children’s rights. This tool should be used as part of a company’s on-going assessment of its human rights impacts, in line with the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights.
• The tool outlines criteria that companies can use to review business policies and practices as relevant to children’s rights. They are grouped according to (1) policy, (2) due diligence and (3) remediation. To enable companies to go into greater depth in certain areas, the tool provides supplementary criteria.
• The criteria in the tool can be integrated into wider social, environmental and human rights impact assessments, or they can be used for a stand-alone child rights impact assessment.
• Each of the criteria questions are accompanied by suggested actions that businesses can take to address the identified risks.
TOOL 4REPORTINGThe Children’s Rights in Sustainability Reporting tools are intended to help companies report and communicate on how they are respecting and sup-porting children’s rights.
This consist of two separate tools
• Children’s Rights in Sustainability Reporting – GRI G3.1
• Children’s Rights in Sustainability Reporting – GRI G4
The tools provides child rights extensions to existing GRI indicators in G3.1 and G4 in order to enable companies to report on children’s rights using existing reporting frameworks.
The tools will be available at the end of October 2013
“Sustainability is most fundamentally about making the world a better place for the next generation. These Principles are therefore at the very heart of sustainability.”
– Charlotte Ersbøll, Novo Nordisk
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