Children's Rights and Business
Companies interact with children on a daily basis, although often neither directly nor purposefully. Children are workers in factories and fields, family members of employees and community members in the neighbourhoods where businesses operate.
In many countries, children are increasingly recognized as a consumer group themselves, with discretionary income to spend and influence on family purchases. Business has enormous power to improve children’s lives through the way in which they operate facilities, develop and market products, provide services, and exert influence on economic and social development. Conversely, business has the power to disregard or even imperil the interests of children, so many of whom find themselves invisible and voiceless.
The course Children are everyone’s business provides a comprehensive overview of the framework that has been developed to guide business’ interactions with children, including the standards and tools that are available to companies to make use of, but also those that are relevant to governments.
Course Themes
- The UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights as a framework for a focus on children
- The role of business and the business case: The Children’s Rights and Business Principles
- Company due diligence: company management processes and practices for advancing children’s rights
- The role of government: The governmental responsibility to protect children’s rights in the context of business activities
- Industry streams: Specific industry aspects will be considered, with a focus on practical application, including child rights in the context of the travel and tourism as well as the extractives industries
- The role of civil society and international organizations in promoting and protecting children’s rights in the context of business activities