UNICEF CSR TOOLS PILOT – December 2012-March 2013
Implementing the Children’s Rights and Business Principles (http://www.unicef.org/csr/)
INTRODUCTION
The Children’s Rights and Business Principles (hereafter the Principles) identify a comprehensive
range of actions that all business should take to prevent and address adverse impacts connected with
their activities and relationships, and maximize positive business impacts on children’s lives.
In order to meet this responsibility, the Principles call on business to put in place appropriate policies
and processes, as set out in the Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights including a policy
commitment and a due diligence process for addressing the potential and actual impact on human
rights.
UNICEF is developing guidance tools to support companies in implementing the Principles by
integrating children’s rights into their policies and processes.
The following UNICEF CSR tools now available for consultation and testing and we are inviting
selected companies, who are already actively engaged on children’s rights, to participate in a pilot
organized by the central UNICEF CSR unit.
The set of tools available for the pilot include the following:
→
→
→
A Checklist for companies for Assessing child rights impacts – ‘from reactive to proactive’
A Workbook for companies for Integration and action– ‘walking the talk’
Guidance for Child Rights Reporting – ‘knowing and showing’.
THE UNICEF CSR TOOLS PILOT
The pilot will take place during January-March 2013 with an introductory webinar taking place in mid
December 2012. The Pilot programme will be supported by the UNICEF CSR unit and will consist of a
series of webinars aimed at building companies’ capacity on the children’s rights and business
agenda and the CSR tools. The companies participating in the programme will be expected to review
the tools or pilot them as part of the due diligence processes and at the end of the programme provide
feedback to UNICEF through a questionnaire and a face-to-face consultation meeting taking place in
Geneva in April 2013.
The Programme:
Webinar 1 – Mid December: Introduction to the UNICEF CSR tools pilot
Webinar 2 - January – Background and Introduction of the Children’s Rights and Business Principles,
and webinars on Workplace, Marketplace, and Community
Webinar 3 – February/March – As necessary, sharing of experiences and opportunity to ask
questions and comment on pilot tools
Meeting – April – Consultation and review meeting
The participating companies will have access to an online collaboration platform throughout the
programme, through which they can ask questions and get support on issues related to the pilot.
UNICEF CSR TOOLS FOR PILOT
Child Rights Checklist - Assessing impacts or ‘from reactive to proactive’
At the center of the human right due diligence is the need for companies to ‘identify and assess any
actual or potential adverse impact on children’s rights. This should draw on human rights expertise
and involve meaningful consultation with children and other potentially affected groups and relevant
stakeholders.’ Children’s Rights and Business Principles, Principle 1
UNICEF has developed a Checklist that defines indicators that a company can use to measure their
implementation of the Principles. With the Checklist, a company can evaluate its corporate practices
and management systems as it relates to child rights impacts, and determine areas for improvement.
The Checklist can be viewed as a complementary tool to the ongoing processes of assessing a
company’s human rights impact as outlined in the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human
Rights. Moreover, the questions and indicators in the Checklist can be integrated into wider social,
environmental and human rights impact assessments.
However should a company choose to carry out a stand-alone assessment of its child rights impacts,
the Checklist can serve as an overall guidance framework to the development of methodology and as
a source for information on relevant child rights impact areas.
Children’s Rights CSR Workbook - Integration and action or ‘walking the talk’
Completion of the Checklist will enable a company to evaluate their corporate practices and
management systems as it relates to child rights impacts, and determine areas for improvement
While the Checklist will not provide a clear plan on what to do next vis à vis minimizing a company’s
adverse impact on children’s rights, the information gathered from the exercise can inform the
discussions that will be required to assess the identified gaps and develop appropriate solutions and
action plans to minimize negative impacts and maximize positive impacts on children’s rights.
UNICEF has developed the Workbook ‘Children are Everyone’s Business’ which can be used as part
of identifying solutions and areas for improvement in relation to children’s rights. The Workbook
provides practical suggestions and guidance on how companies can address child rights impact and
implement actions based on their key areas of risk and opportunity.
Child Rights Reporting - Tracking performance or ‘knowing and showing’
A company needs to establish and continuously monitor performance indicators that correspond to
the human rights or child rights issues identified through its impact assessment. Moreover, in order for
stakeholders to know how a company is doing at implementing the Principles, a company should
publicly communicate on its efforts to address these impacts. UNICEF has developed a tool that
provides specific guidance to companies on child rights reporting.
The Child Rights Reporting Tool is aligned with the Checklist and also points the user to where the
Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) framework (footnote on GRI) can be useful in reporting on impact on
children’s rights. Companies can thus use
the child rights reporting tool as part of
existing GRI reporting.
Key findings from UNICEF’s Child
Rights Reporting Working Paper(2012)
The key conclusion is that reporting and disclosure
on children’s rights-related issues is, with a few
exceptions, significantly under-developed.
Specifically, the following trends and gaps in
reporting in relation to children’s rights are evident:
a) An over-emphasis on philanthropy b) Lack of
discussion of systemic problems and impacts
c) Lack of reporting on policy involvement d)Lack
of balance in reporting i.e. a predominance of
positive and absence of negative reporting.