STOCKHOLM,27 October, 2020

Global Child Forum has just released “How To Implement a Children’s Rights Perspective: A Workbook for Business”, a comprehensive step-by-step guide to help companies understand how their business impacts the lives of children. The Workbook was launched on 8 October at the organization’s Digital ActionLab – “The advantage for business to engage with children’s rights”, opened by Global Child Forum’s Honorary Chairman, HM King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden.

Children interact daily with the private sector – as family members of workers, employees, consumers, and community members affected by operations and supply chains. The Children’s Rights and Business Workbook is designed to help business understand how their actions effect children’s lives globally. Complete with resources, examples and working templates, the Workbook enables businesses to explore their impact beyond the most widely known form of risk – child labour – and covers a broad range of issues.

The Workbook was made possible by the support of the Boston Consulting Group and Lindéngruppen, whose pledge at the Global Child Forum 2018 inspired them to undertake this project. “Business has a huge impact on children’s lives and their perspectives on business matter,” said Jenny Lindén Urnes, Chair of Lindéngruppen. “However, it can be difficult to know where to start, so we pledged to create a guide for how to incorporate children’s voices into our group of businesses. We collaborated with Global Child Forum and the Boston Consulting Group to develop the Workbook on how to implement a children’s rights perspective. It has provided us with a roadmap and we hope it will enable many other companies to start working with children’s rights.”

“We hope that this guide will not only inform and inspire, but equip business leaders and sustainability professionals with the tools to take action ensuring that children’s rights are respected and supported by businesses around the world,” said Cajsa Wiking, Secretary General for Global Child Forum.

The Workbook has been written in alignment with the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGPs) and the Children’s Rights and Business Principles developed by UNICEF, Save the Children and UN Global Compact .