Children’s Principles for Business

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.

The Principles will present business, civil society, government, academia and other stakeholders with an unprecedented opportunity to join forces in an effort to enable the private sector to become a more positive force for children. Specifically, they will provide a coherent set of practical considerations that business can apply throughout their operations. Whether in the workplace, marketplace or community, the Children’s Principles will maximize the positive impacts and minimize the negative ramifications that their activities may have on children. Recognizing the important contribution that business can make in shaping these Principles and ensuring their relevance to business operations, the partners will launch an extensive multi-stakeholder consultation process which will invite business across sectors and geographies to be fully engaged from the outset. The Children’s Principles will be released in 2011.

While these important Principles are being developed, CCR CSR will be involved with our partners to process the consultations and continue to help in commissioning research to better understand the impact of businesses on children. CCR CSR will work with our networks and individual companies to design better projects addressing difficult matters, and learn from good and inspiring examples. Innovative and interesting approaches to protect the rights of the child will certainly inform the Principles mentioned before.