Children's Rights and Business

"The images of children toiling in sweatshops and earning next to nothing to manufacture big brand goods became a staple during the ending child labor campaigns of the 1990s. In the two decades that followed, when the terms business and children's rights came together, they always did so in the context of child labor. Yet, child labor is but one part of the multifaceted relationship between businesses and children. Businesses engage in value and employment creation and generate investment. Businesses also buy and sell goods and services. By virtue of their activities and decisions, they may come into contact with children not only in the context of child labor but also when children are consumers, offspring of their employees or members of the communities in which businesses operate. Business activity and decisions can affect socio-economic conditions where they operate, which in turn have a direct bearing on how children live, whether they have to work, whether they have leisure time or even more basically, access to food and housing. The full enjoyment of the rights set forth in the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) also depends on whether adequate resources are at the disposal of children, their families and communities in which they live. Of course, businesses do and can contribute to the realization of children's rights and have the potential to generate positive children's rights impacts"--