Children’s rights in global supply chains

Across the world, global supply chains touch the lives of hundreds of millions of children daily. Despite their important contribution to economic growth, supply chains are frequently characterized by decent work deficits and adverse human rights impacts. Negative consequences are especially acute for boys and girls whose age, physical and mental development, and often marginalized status in society, can make them particularly vulnerable rightsholders.

Children are affected by businesses in many direct and indirect ways — as child labourers or young workers, dependents of working parents and community members. Children are affected by families’ living conditions and access to basic services, and business impact on land, water, and environmental resources. For example, an estimated 650 million women across 82 countries lack access to adequate maternity protection at work, according to the International Labour Organization (ILO). This is not only a women’s rights violation, but also affects children’s health, nutrition, protection, and education. The availability of affordable, quality childcare for working parents — a critical instrument to promote early childhood development (ECD) — is another major gap. Even in high income countries, afford-able, quality childcare remains inaccessible, presenting a barrier to gender equality and children’s development. Child labour in global supply chains is another pressing concern, with estimates released in 2021 showing the first increase in absolute child labour numbers in two decades.

A rapid acceleration of conflict and climate related concerns and the implications for vulnerable groups such as children has exacerbated business-related impacts. The convergence of multiple crises from conflict and climate to cost of living have accentuated calls for a rapid transition to more sustainable economic models. Increasingly, this also addresses the role and responsibility of the private sector. Children and their rights, however, rarely feature in concepts and efforts by business and governments alike to mitigate the effects of conflict, climate change and environmental degradation. This is despite children being least responsible yet simultaneously among the most adversely affected, including in global supply chains. For example, the rapid growth in demand for critical minerals and rare earth elements needed for a green transition carries severe children’s rights risks during the extraction process, including child labour and exposure to environmental degradation. There is also increasing evidence about the social and environmental risks to children linked to the growth in waste and recycling value chains. 

In providing decent work and economic opportunity due to its scale, reach and influence, businesses can play a crucial role. Responsible business practices can contribute to the safeguarding children’s rights within global supply chains. 

UNICEF’s response to adverse children’s rights impacts in global supply chains involves a multi-sectoral, integrated approach, with a focus on prevention and systems strengthening to address root causes and response services. Within this context, UNICEF has been engaging business, industry, government, and other key stakeholders in joint action to promote responsible business action for children at scale. This includes the development and scaling of innovative solutions to maximise the potential of global supply chains to positively transform the lives of everyone. Evidence from this work shows that multiple and coordinated interventions across the public and private spheres are needed to create enabling environments in which all businesses respect children’s rights. For example, efforts to eradicate child labour cannot succeed without improving access to quality education, strengthen child protection and social protection systems, strengthen labour laws and enforcement, and regulate responsible business practices. Cross-cutting work on gender and social and behaviour change is equally instrumental (e.g., in relation to care and family-friendly policies).

Within the area of child rights and business UNICEF has worked to address children’s rights in global supply chains, both from the sourcing perspective promoting responsible business conduct and due diligence practices that address child labour. The conditions of parents and caregivers in the workplace, notably through the promotion of family friendly policies, alongside programmatic areas such as social policy and child protection, are also important pieces to this work.