Integrating Children’s Rights in Business and Human Rights Policies

Children interact with businesses daily, both directly and indirectly. This makes them an essential stakeholder for businesses, yet children’s presence and voices are often overlooked in practice. This is something to rectify, as integrating children’s roles in business and human rights frameworks is imperative to protect their welfare and wellbeing.

Children in Business and Human Rights

Children aged below 18 make up one-third of the world’s population. They engage with businesses every day in various ways, from consuming goods to being the family members of the employees. In turn, businesses have the obligation to protect children’s rights and take responsibility when abuses occur.

The United Nations has published the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, which countries can then implement through their National Action Plans (NAPs) on Business and Human Rights. In this context, UNICEF published a report as guidance on how to uphold them in NAPs and other related policies.

Toolkits for National Action Plans

UNICEF partnered with the International Corporate Accountability Round Table (ICAR) and the Danish Institute for Human Rights (DIHR) to develop the “Children’s Rights in National Action Plans (NAPs) on Business and Human Rights” report. Previously, both organizations have created the NAPs Toolkit, a building block for NAPs development and monitoring.

The report offers two application tools to help integrate and monitor children’s rights in the NAPs. The first tool is called the Children’s Rights NAP Checklist, which underscores that governments must engage directly with children and through children’s stakeholders within governments and organizations. It provides ten action items that governments must follow to ensure that children’s concerns and opinions are sufficiently considered in the process of developing NAPs.

The second tool, called the Children’s Rights National Baseline Assessment Template, highlights four key areas of implementation to integrate children’s rights in NAP content:

Legal and policy framework: Gathering information about governments’ level of implementation on a legal and governance framework on children’s rights.
Initiatives and responses on children’s rights: Gathering information on local initiatives and responses to children’s rights in a business context.
Implementation areas: Gathering information on key areas of children’s rights implementation, including child labor, decent work for parents and caregivers, and product safety and marketing.
Context: Gathering information on a country’s local context through international and local sources.

Supporting Children’s Wellbeing

As businesses seek to progress toward sustainable and responsible practices, acknowledging and mitigating their impacts on human rights and other social aspects is imperative. Governments, businesses, and civil society should utilize the tools above and similar frameworks to ensure children’s voices and experiences are recognized and considered in decision-making processes.

Editor: Nazalea Kusuma

Kresentia Madina

Reporter at Green Network Asia | Website | + posts

Madina is the Assistant Manager of Stakeholder Engagement at Green Network Asia. She holds a bachelor’s degree in English Studies from Universitas Indonesia. As part of the GNA In-House Team, she supports the organization's multi-stakeholder engagement across international organizations, governments, businesses, civil society, and grassroots communities through digital publications, events, capacity building, and research.