Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) has been understood and conceptually used since the 1990s, yet only recently gained weight in legal terms. It was designed to hold businesses accountable for the environmental wellbeing and human rights within their production and supply chains that they financially benefit from, and in turn to uphold the rights of the most vulnerable sector of society – children.

The importance of child rights

The interaction between businesses and children is inevitable, as people under 18 years old make up a third of the worlds population. The importance of this interaction, whether as consumers, relations to employees or young workers themselves is critical because childhood is the most fundamental stage of development, where young people are more sensitive both to psychological and physical harm. Furthermore, they are most vulnerable to violence and abuse, deeming defenceless when forced into certain situations either out of desperation or before their own autonomy has developed to protest. If they are exposed to hazardous operations whether directly or indirectly, they are at high risk of mental and physical damage. In extreme yet unfortunately widespread cases of child labour exploitation within supply chains, for domestic work or other forms of illicit labour, the consequences to a child’s wellbeing can be irreversible.

Furthermore, the wellbeing of children is important to the long-term economic growth within communities. 215 million children are engaged in child labour worldwide, and 101 million children are not attending primary school. By being exploited from a young age, the stunt in education that children undergo will ultimately feedback negatively on the future overall productivity rates of businesses within certain economies.

The development of CSR

In the development CSR, rights observers have understood that corporate interests generally outweigh the voluntary demand for an ethical and socially responsible supply chain. There are various examples of CSR that have developed, which compels corporations to comply with legal standards. For example the UK Modern Slavery Act 2015 that that dictates national legal standards, which requires corporations to publish the steps they are taking to ensure their supply chains and free of modern slavery, child labour, human trafficking. This regulation applies both domestically and for international sourcing, in which certain export standards of mandatory social compliance are placed onto developing countries with cheap labour. The California Transparency in Supply Chain Act (CTSCA) 2010 operates similar obligations but working at state level. The Indian Companies Act (2013) compels Indian corporations to spend 2% of their pre-tax profit on CSR.

How Child Rights fit into CSR

Although such legislation is aimed more broadly at achieving supply chain transparency, upholding child rights is a key element of this. Specifically, there is a set of 10 Child Rights and Business Principles as outlined by Save the Children, the UN Global Compact and UNICEF, which give a comprehensive yet non-exhaustive list of CSR requirements in relation to child rights. Corporations must:

1. Meet their responsibility to respect children’s rights and commit to supporting the human rights of children
2. Contribute to the elimination of child labour, including in all business activities and business relationships
3. Provide decent work for young workers, parents and caregivers
4. Ensure the protection and safety of children in all business activities and facilities
5. Ensure that products and services are safe, and seek to support children’s rights through them
6. Use marketing and advertising that respect and support children’s rights
7. Respect and support children’s rights in relation to the environment and to land acquisition and use
8. Respect and support children’s rights in security arrangements
9. Help protect children affected by emergencies
10. Reinforce community and government efforts to protect and fulfil children’s rights

As this literature points out, the rights of children are no ‘new legal obligation’, instead are innate human rights, which in turn drives CSR. This can be broken down into the Corporate Responsibility to Respect, which “applies to the business’s own activities and to its business relationships, linked to its operations, products or services” as well as the Corporate Commitment to Support, which demands “voluntary actions that seek to advance human rights, including children’s rights, through core business activities, strategic social investments and philanthropy, advocacy and public policy engagement, and working in partnership and other collective action.”

The focus of CSR towards children aims to eliminate child labour from supply chains, but also must take the nuanced approach which includes protecting the rights of children in their core business strategy, covering all operations, employee rights, marketing, and delivery of products and services.

The aim is for states to be responsible by implementing such CSR legislation to level out the injustices and inequalities of the world’s wealthiest corporations taking advantage of the worlds most poor and vulnerable. Although this works ideologically, the problem comes with implementation. Limitations with CSR studies show that even passive state regulation does not necessarily lead to thorough commitment to supply chains free of human rights abuses and environmental degradation by corporations. Trends show most corporations only apply resource to CSR when receiving pressure from external organisations. Hence, it takes active pressure by rights groups, NGOs and governments to achieve this, indicating the critical role of UNICEF and organisations to lobby against corporate interests. For CSR to be achieved, strict legal requirements and binding commitments must be met with appropriate sanctions as means of compulsion to achieve child rights.