Canada Child Rights and Business Assessment
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Canada Child Rights and Business Assessment A guide for Canadian businesses on addressing children’s considerations and aligning with the Sustainable Development Goals © UNICEF/UN0339383/Frank Dejongh UNICEF/UN0339383/Frank © Contents 3 Introduction by the Working Group 4 Child Rights and Well-being in Canada and the World 5 Business and Child Rights 6 Principle 1: Commit to Respect and Support Child Rights 8 Principle 2: Contribute to the Elimination of Child Labour 10 Principle 3: Provide Decent Work for Young Workers, Parents and Caregivers 12 Principle 4: Ensure the Protection and Safety of Children 14 Principle 5: Ensure that Products and Services are Safe for Children 16 Principle 6: Use Marketing and Advertising that Respect and Support Child Rights 18 Principle 7: Respect Child Rights in Relation to the Environment and Land Use 20 Principle 8: Respect and Support Child Rights in Security Arrangements 22 Principle 9: Help Protect Children affected by Emergencies 24 Principle 10: Reinforce Government and Community Efforts to Protect Child Rights 26 Recommendations Any references made to a particular company do not imply endorsement of that company by UNICEF Canada or Global Compact Network Canada. Rather, these are intended to provide examples of how child rights are currently being addressed by companies, which others can learn from, adapt, and/or replicate. Introduction by the Working Group Children’s rights are everybody’s business. Respecting and Development Goals (SDGs), and the Canadian Index of Child supporting children’s rights are also good for business. As and Youth Well-being. This assessment aims not merely to Canadian companies with operations at home and abroad, inform, but to inspire Canadian businesses to identify, prevent, we recognize that over the lifetime of our businesses, our mitigate and account for how they address their salient impacts youngest stakeholders might be our most important. Yet we on children. To integrate children’s considerations into their also recognize that child rights and wellbeing can sometimes policy commitments, due diligence processes, and grievance be neglected. In collaboration with UNICEF Canada and the mechanisms. To regularly and publicly communicate on their Global Compact Network Canada, this assessment provides a efforts to do so as part of their UNGC Communications on snapshot of how Canadian businesses are currently integrating Progress and annual and sustainability reporting. Only then children’s considerations into their responsible business will we reach a tipping point where child rights integration will conduct. Across ten key areas, we look at the impacts transform from being a niche issue for pioneering companies to of business on children and examples of how Canadian being core business for all. companies are addressing these impacts. We see how widespread these efforts are across ten different sectors, by UNICEF Canada and Global Compact Network Canada would surveying public references to child rights issues in the annual like to thank the members of the Working Group for their input and sustainability reporting of leading Canadian companies on and feedback, including the Bank of Montreal, Intact Insurance, the S&P/TSX 60 Index of the Toronto Stock Exchange. We map the Mining Association of Canada, Lundin Foundation, and how these issues align with three key frameworks: the Ten Kinross Gold. We would also like to thank the companies that Principles of the UN Global Compact (UNGC), the Sustainable reviewed and granted permission to reproduce examples. Survey methodology Global Compact Network Canada • Materials (10): Agnico Eagle Mines, • Communication Services (4): Bell identified public references to child Barrick Gold, CCL Industries, First Canada, Rogers Communications, Shaw rights issues in the annual and Quantum Minerals, Franco-Nevada Communications and Telus Corporation. sustainability reporting of leading Corporation, Kinross Gold, Kirkland Lake • Utilities (3): Brookfield Infrastructure Canadian companies on the S&P/ Gold, Nutrien, Teck Resources, and Partners, Emera Incorporated and Fortis TSX 60 Index of the Toronto Stock Wheaton Precious Metals. Incorporated. Exchange. These companies are • Energy (9): Cameco, Canadian Natural • Health Care (2): Bausch Health grouped by sector as defined by the Resources, Cenovus Energy, Enbridge, Companies and Canopy Growth Global Industry Classification Standard Imperial Oil, Inter Pipeline, Pembina Corporation. (GICS). At the time of the survey in Pipeline, Suncor Energy and TC Energy. • Consumer Discretionary (2): Summer 2020, the companies captured • Consumer Staples (7): Alimentation Gildan Activewear and Canadian Tire by the S&P/TSX 60 were: Couche-Tard, Dollarama, George Corporation. Weston, Loblaws, Metro, Restaurant • Financials (11): Bank of Montreal, Brands International and Saputo. Please note that the composition of the Brookfield Asset Management, • Information Technology (6): S&P/TSX 60 may change over time, Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, Blackberry, CGI Incorporated, and that the examples cited in this Manulife Financial Corporation, National Constellation Software, Magna assessment do not necessarily come from Bank of Canada, Power Corporation International, Shopify Incorporated and S&P/TSX 60 companies. of Canada, Royal Bank of Canada, Open Text Corporation. Scotiabank, Sun Life Financial, Thomson • Industrials (6): Bombardier, Brookfield Reuters Corporation and Toronto Property Partners, Canadian National Dominion Bank. Railway, Canadian Pacific Railway, SNC Lavalin and Waste Connections. Canada Child Rights and Business Assessment 3 Child Rights and Well-being in Canada and the World The 1989 UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) support strong and equitable early childhood development, outlines a comprehensive framework of 42 substantive tend to have happier, healthier children. rights that children have in order to address their specific vulnerabilities and entitlements, including guiding principles The Canadian Index of Child and Youth Well-being, led on non-discrimination; ensuring the best interests of the child; by UNICEF Canada, measures levels, inequalities and trends the right to life, survival and development; and respect for in the state of children and youth. It tracks 125 indicators the views of the child. It defines a child as any person under across nine dimensions of the lives of children and youth, the age of 18. The Government of Canada signed the CRC in from birth to age 18, using the most recent, population-level, 1990 and ratified it in 1991. statistical data. Sixty per cent of the indicators are based on how children and youth report their own well-being. Thirty per There have been impressive gains for children over the past cent of the indicators measure Canada’s achievement of the three decades: the global under-five mortality rate has more SDG targets for children. Many young people and more than than halved; the proportion of children not getting enough 90 adult experts with diverse perspectives contributed to the of the right food to eat has decreased by nearly half; and development of the Index, in collaboration with the Canadian a third of the world’s population now have access to clean Index of Wellbeing based at the University of Waterloo. drinking water. However, great challenges remain: a quarter of a billion children are still out of school; the most vulnerable The inaugural 2019 report was a profile of children and youth girls in many countries are still at risk of child marriage; and that provided a baseline from which future reports will track climate change is disproportionately affecting children. The progress. The Index complements the UNICEF Report Cards COVID-19 pandemic is also threatening and in some cases that look at life for children in the world’s rich countries. In reversing progress towards the Sustainable Development 2020, Canada ranked 30th among 38 rich countries in Goals (SDGs), adopted by all UN Member States in 2015, as the well-being of children and youth under 18. The only part of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development to end two indicators in which Canada was in the top third were poverty, protect the planet and improve the lives of everyone. in children’s academic achievement and exposure to air pollution. Canada fell below average in more than half the In Canada, governments have introduced independent measures of child well-being. Canada ranked lowest in child advocates for children in most provinces and territories, some survival (including teen suicide and child mortality), health have adopted Child Rights Impact Assessments, and some (including immunization and unhealthy weight) and children’s have established Child Friendly Cities. However, Canada is overall life satisfaction. The widest gaps between Canada not yet a global leader on realizing child rights and wellbeing. and the best-performing countries existed in bringing down UNICEF reports have revealed that countries that have rates of child poverty and youth exclusion from school and embedded the CRC more expansively in their governments, work. Incremental public policy advances have not achieved with greater investment and more robust public policies to progress for children. “There is no trust more sacred than the one the world holds with children. There is no duty more important than ensuring that their rights are respected, that their welfare is protected, that their lives are free from fear and want and that they grow up in peace.” Kofi