Companies can affect children’s rights in all stages of their value chains. Children hold various roles in relation to business including as consumers of products (downstream), as beneficiaries of employee programs (midstream), as members of local communities around business operations, and as workers in value chains (mid- or upstream). Despite these multiple intersections between business and children, companies rarely address children’s rights specifically beyond their general commitments to human rights. Typically, children’s rights are exclusively featured in standard contractual clauses for suppliers and in sporadic philanthropic activities.
The study highlights the diverse impacts of companies on children and their rights - both in their supply chains and in their own business activities in Switzerland and Liechtenstein. Companies are usually unaware of the breadth of children's rights issues that may be relevant to them. Instead, they reduce children's rights in the value chain to the fight against child labour. Product safety and the safety of children in their own business facilities and events also play an important role in their own business principles. New laws on human rights due diligence raise companies' awareness and create impetus for companies to take a closer look at children's rights.
Article number: G164
