Children's Rights and Business in Middle East and North Africa

Children are under pressure in this region of the world from many different sources. According to UNICEF, adolescents and youth across MENA, feel a sense of disillusionment, frustration and anger regarding the number of barriers they face to effective learning and engagement with their communities and the workplace.

According to the Arab Youth Survey in 2017, 55% of youth feel that life in MENA has deteriorated over the last decade. However, participatory research reveals that these same adolescents and youth are still hopeful that their reality will change and are keen to engage positively in changing that reality.  Business can play an important role in addressing these barriers and paving the way to a more prosperous future for this region’s young people.

To evaluate country-level data based on children’s rights indicators, visit the Children’s Rights and Business Atlas.

External Publication
Investor Perspectives on Children’s Rights

Global Child Forum is an independent, global multi-stakeholder platform for informed dialogue and thought leadership on how to advance children’s rights in support of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. This report is part of Global Child Forum’s objective to initiate and share research, raise crucial global awareness, new thinking and cross-sector dialogue regarding children’s rights. 195 investors in Europe and USA were invited to participate in the survey; only 22 responded. Some of the main findings included: Investors typically focus primarily on child labour and less on other children’s rights issues. 32 of the 195 investors have a publicly available responsible investor policy that includes a reference to children’s rights Of the 22 investors who responded, 21 replied that children’s rights have a potentially material impact to their investments.

External Publication
Child Labour and UNICEF in Action: Children at the Centre

This publication presents UNICEF’s stance and approach to child labour. While upholding the Convention on the Rights of the Child, UNICEF and its partners work to strengthen legal and policy frameworks, enhance government and community-based structures and services, and engage with communities to promote positive social change. To achieve positive results, promoting understanding through research of the underlying causes of child labour and addressing their interconnectedness is key to UNICEF’s approach to response and prevention.

External Publication
Listen up, business leaders! Children on how businesses impact their lives

The views from children in this booklet developed by Save the Children Sweden, are taken from several consultations with children about corporate social responsibility, the Children’s Rights and Business Principles and from child rights reporting, especially regarding the impact of the business sector. Children know a lot. Let's listen to them and take their views into account!

External Publication
Consultation Package and Facilitator’s Guide. Child and Adolescent Participation in the Children’s Rights and Business Principles Initiative (CRBPI)

A guide developed by Save the Children containing information and ideas for consulting with children and young people and collecting their views on the Draft Children’s Rights and Business Principles. It takes the reader through a series of simple steps and  activities needed to get started and  gives tips to ensure young people's recommendations are accuratley documented. The guidelines can be adapted to suit the particular needs and preferences of the participants with respect to children's rights in the context of business activities.  Within this Guide you will find information about how to prepare for the consultation; important details/suggestions for ensuring young people's recommendations are accurately documented; various group activities to support discussion, learning and team building; and finally, some ideas relating to next steps and follow up.  This Guide also contains a list of required and recommended resources about children and young people’s participation.

External Publication
What is… The Children’s Rights and Business Principles Initiative? (CRBPI). Questions and Answers for children and adolescents

This paper has been prepared to support you, children and adolescents, to better understand how business affects your lives, families, communities and also your rights. Within these pages you will also learn about the ‘Children’s Rights and Business Principles Initiative’ (CRBI), the first comprehensive set of global standards for child-friendly business practices, developed by Save the Children Sweden together with the UN Global Compact and Unicef.  Here you will find out more about what children's rights are, what is meant by the term 'children's participation', and the impact of business on the rights of children.  You will also find answers to simple and basic questions about the Principles and at the end there is a list of key words to help you understand the terms used throughout this resource.