Resource Center

The Principles call on businesses to identify and assess any actual or potential adverse child rights impacts they may be involved in either directly or indirectly, either through their own activities or as a result of business relationships. This is a key element of implementing their corporate responsibility to respect. The assessment process can also help companies to identify important opportunities to support children’s rights, enabling the business to go beyond the avoidance of adverse impacts and take additional steps that may involve collaboration with governments, local communities, civil society and young people on urgent actions needed to fulfill the rights of children. This tool provides guidance for companies on assessing their policies and processes as they relate to the responsibility to respect and commitment to support children’s rights. It can be used to integrate child rights considerations into ongoing assessments of overall human rights impacts, as outlined in the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights. Specifically, it offers a number of criteria that companies can use both to review critical areas of potential or actual impact on children’s rights, and identify actions for improvement. Guidance on specific actions a company can take to address the identified risks to children is provided throughout the tool.