The Seventh Issue of the Quarterly Bulletin on Business & Children
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Issue 7: Quarterly Bulletin on Business & Children December 2013 Welcome to the seventh issue of the Quarterly Bulletin on Business & Children, produced by Business & Human Rights Resource Centre. The purpose of this e-bulletin is to help keep everyone working in this field informed about recent key developments and forthcoming initiatives. Please encourage others to consider signing up. And if you would like to contribute to future issues, let us know. This issue and past bulletins are available on the Centre’s Business & Children Portal. To sign up or to contribute an entry, contact: Annabel Short short (at) business-humanrights.org (Programme Director, based in New York) with a cc to Eniko Horvath (Researcher, based in London) horvath (at) business-humanrights.org. CONTENTS 1. Summary .................................................................................................................................... 1 2. Announcements: Forthcoming activities and recent projects ................................................ 3 English ....................................................................................................................................... 3 Español ...................................................................................................................................... 8 Français ................................................................................................................................... 11 3. Other news and developments ............................................................................................... 13 Global ......................................................................................................................................... 13 Africa .......................................................................................................................................... 13 Americas .................................................................................................................................... 14 Asia & Pacific ............................................................................................................................. 14 Europe & Central Asia ................................................................................................................ 15 Middle East & North Africa ......................................................................................................... 15 1. Summary Welcome to the 7th Quarterly Bulletin on Business & Children. As the bulletin highlights, children in all parts of the world remain vulnerable to exploitation by business. This includes Syrian children who have fled the conflict to neighbouring countries. As a recent UN report highlighted: “In both Jordan and Lebanon, [Syrian] children as young as seven years old are working long hours for little pay, sometimes in dangerous or exploitative conditions”. Among others, children in Macau are also vulnerable to exploitation as they are trafficked for the sex tourism industry, which has reportedly been growing alongside the city’s many casinos. Serious efforts to reduce corporate abuses of children’s rights are underway, although currently they are too few and far between. At the second Annual Forum on Business and Human Rights in Geneva this December, participants at a panel on Business Respect for the Rights of Children emphasised the need for companies to move beyond a “do no harm” approach and to take into 2 account issues such as child consultation, and the right to remedy. On child consultation, this bulletin refers to the Bank Information Center’s consultations with over 100 children and adolescents in six countries regarding the World Bank’s review of its social and environmental standards. It also features travel firm Kuoni’s consultations with children as part of its human rights impact assessment in India, to identify possible risks and benefits of the tourism industry there. The children were asked, for example, how they saw business affecting their daily lives and those of the family and community; whether they encountered tourists in their daily lives; and any fears they may have for their safety. Furthermore, UNICEF & Guardian Sustainable Business’s week on Giving Children a Voice in Business featured a number of materials dedicated to companies engaging children as stakeholders. On access to remedy, the bulletin refers to two lawsuits. In September this year, a group of 707 Chileans filed a lawsuit in Sweden against Boliden mining firm alleging it allowed dumping toxic waste in Arica, Chile in the 1980s that led to serious health problems – including lead poisoning which has a particularly harmful effect on children. The company says it regrets what happened, while pointing to legal proceedings in Chile that established that PROMEL, the firm it contracted to process the waste, and the Chilean government, are responsible for the harm suffered. In Pennsylvania, USA, the firms that owned and operated two juvenile detention centres and that were involved in the “kids for cash” scandal (by which judges accepted kickbacks for sentencing children and adolescents to those centres) settled a civil lawsuit for $2.5 million. There is growing awareness of the situation of children of migrant workers, and companies’ responsibilities in that regard. The Center for Child-Rights and Corporate Social Responsibility in China (CCR CSR) surveyed over 1500 parents, left-behind children and local businesses in China. Over 80% of the migrant workers with children left in their home towns reported “feeling inadequate in their role as parents”, CCR CSR reports. Seventy percent of respondents felt strong guilt and anxiety as a results of the separation. A team from Harvard University’s FXB Center for Health and Human Rights published a research paper on the situation of migrant workers’ families living and working at a construction site outside Delhi in India – who are among the country’s 40 million migrant workers in that industry. It concludes: “In light of the complex conditions facing this hyper- mobile population, findings suggest policymakers, corporations, and civil society must work to develop initiatives to implement and enforce the rights of migrant workers and their children to identity, family, health, safety, development, education and economic security”. Those are rights that can be at stake, of course, in the interaction of business with children across many sectors and all parts of the world. The bulletin also flags important events on the horizon. Among them are: UNICEF, UN Global Compact and Save the Children: The next annual global Children’s Rights and Business Principles stock-taking event will take place in Nairobi in April/May 2014. Global Child Forum: Global Forum in Stockholm on April 11, 2014; first Satellite Forum in the Middle East in November 2014. International Institute for the Rights of the Child: "New Technologies and children’s rights: the Right to information vs. Right to Complete”, 14-17 October 2014. 3 2. Announcements: Forthcoming activities and recent projects Note: Entries in this section are provided by the named organizations. English i. Committee on the Rights of the Child In the context of the second Annual UN Forum on Business and Human Rights, a multi-stakeholder panel on Business Respect for the Rights of Children was held on 4 December in Palais des Nations, Geneva. It was chaired by Marta Maurás, Senior UNICEF Consultant and included Benyam Dawit Mezmur, Vice-Chairperson of the Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC), Ambassador Carmelo Angulo from Spain, and Porntat Amatavivadhana, Director of Sansiri, a Thai real estate developing company. The panelists engaged in a fruitful discussion with representatives from different States, civil society organizations and the business sector. Against the backdrop of CRC General Comment No. 16 on State obligations regarding the impact of the business sector on children’s rights, the panel and the audience emphasised that business profit and competitiveness may never constitute an obstacle to effective human rights implementation. They also highlighted the necessity to move beyond the “do no harm-approach” in respect of impacting on rights and raised the issues of, inter alia, child consultation, child rights due diligence, the right to reparation and the role of the media. Particular emphasis was placed on States' important role in supporting and monitoring corporate obligations in terms of child rights. This role includes, but is not limited to, ensuring non-discriminatory business policies, as well as making sure that the best interests of the child is a primary consideration in every circumstance. → Contributed by Céline Maria Georgi, Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, crc (at) ohchr.org ii. UN Global Compact UNICEF, UN Global Compact and Save the Children have announced that the next annual global Children’s Rights and Business Principles stock-taking event will take place in Nairobi in April/May 2014. In less than two years since their release, the Principles have dramatically raised awareness of children and youth as critical stakeholders of business. This event will reflect on progress and action taken by business to implement the Principles and thus advancing efforts to respect and support children’s rights in the workplace, marketplace, environment and community; and document evolving good practice both globally and regionally. There will be a special focus on Africa as participants explore