By J. Chandler Republished courtesy IDN-InDepth NewsAnalysis
TORONTO (IDN) - The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) is calling on the business community to work together to build universal principles that will place children’s rights at the top of the global corporate responsibility agenda.
The 'Children’s Principles for Business' will help business avoid the negative impacts that their activities may have on children, argues UNICEF that is being backed by the UN Global Compact and Save the Children non-governmental organization.
The Global Compact -- which observed its ten years of existence at a leaders' summit concluded in New York on June 25 -- is a call to companies around the world to align their strategies and operations with ten universal principles in the areas of human rights, labour, environment and anti-corruption, and to take action in support of broader UN goals.
The Global Compact is not a regulatory body, but a voluntary leadership platform for dialogue and learning. With more than 8,200 signatories in more than 135 countries, it is the world’s largest corporate responsibility initiative.
Save the Children is the world's leading children's rights organization, with 29 national Save the Children offices and operational programmes in over 120 countries. Its vision is a world in which every child attains the right to survival, protection, development and participation.
UNICEF points out that campaigns to end child labour and other breaches of children’s rights are nothing new, but to date there is no simple universal guidance that enables business to be confident their activities, including their social responsibility programmes, are a positive force for the youngest and most vulnerable global citizens.
"Protecting children’s rights is a global responsibility that requires global commitment from us all, in every sector," said Anthony Lake, UNICEF Executive Director. "This new partnership will help to establish clear principles for businesses to participate in the global effort to help all children, and especially those most in need."
The Principles will be based on the Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989) which spells out the basic human rights of children everywhere: the right to survival; to develop to the fullest; to protection from harmful influences, abuse and exploitation; and to participate fully in family, cultural and social life.
"Business has an enormous potential to impact children’s lives," said Georg Kell, Executive Director of the UN Global Compact. "While much progress has been made in managing and mitigating impacts in areas such as child labour, workplace policies, childcare or responsible marketing, the Principles seek to address the broader responsibilities and commitments of business towards children as one of their constituencies."
Recognizing that to be effective, these principles must meet the needs of all stakeholders and that everyone has something to bring to the table, the three partners are appealing to business leaders from all sectors and geographic regions to participate in the consultation process and contribute their expertise to shaping the Children’s Principles for Business.
"It is important that corporations step up and realise that they play a crucial role in children's lives," said Elisabeth Dahlin, Secretary-General of Save the Children Sweden. "The Children's principles for Business will raise the expectations of business behaviour towards children. Many companies can do more than they do today."
The Principles will serve as a unifying framework and as a reference point for business initiatives concerning children. They will help elaborate Principles 1 and 2 of the UN Global Compact, which ask business to respect and support human rights and not be complicit in human rights abuses. The Principles will seek to be relevant and useful to all businesses, whether or not they are Global Compact participants.
The goal for the Global Compact is to have 20,000 participants by 2020, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said on June 24 in New York. "And our commitment is to do all this while maintaining the integrity of the initiative."
In the past two years, more than 1,300 companies have been de-listed for failing to communicate progress in implementing the Compact principles. "The Compact may be a voluntary initiative, but that doesn’t mean it lacks teeth," Ban said.
The significance of the UNICEF initiative is underscored by the 'UN Human Rights and Business Dilemmas Forum' launched by the British risk consultancy Maplecroft with the UN Global Compact.
The Forum respects the fact that "different stakeholders will have different viewpoints about how to address some of the dilemmas we identify, including whether they are even dilemmas in the first place".
"However, the spirit of this joint endeavour," according to a message posted on the web, "is to stimulate constructive discussion about the options available for responsible business when operating in, procuring from or distributing to emerging economies."
The organizers of the Forum point out: "The dilemma for responsible business is how to address child labour responsibly given the complex social and economic context in which it occurs. While a business may seek to respect the international conventions and national laws on minimum age there is the dilemma that eliminating children from work without considering the implications for them may worsen their situation.
"Dismissing children from the workplace may leave them vulnerable to more exploitative work elsewhere and negative health and wellbeing implications due to increased poverty within the family (if indeed they have one). Responsible management and the formulation of innovative strategies to cope with this dilemma can support the right to childhood and primary education.
"For instance, in certain situations companies might consider providing education within the workplace. However, if poorly conceived, this course of action might expose a company to reputational risks. Addressing poverty and education directly -- often the root cause of child labour -- is generally beyond the remit and capability of business."
The website lists "real-world examples": Sporting goods brands accused of purchasing footballs made by child labour in Sialkot, Pakistan; Nestle accused of purchasing cocoa harvested by child labour; and Apple admits that child labour was used by some suppliers to build iPods and iPhones.
