THE United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef), in partnership with the Makati Business Club (MBC), unveiled last week the Children’s Rights and Business Principles (CRBP).
The launching was attended by prominent businessmen led by Chairman Jaime Augusto Zobel de Ayala of the Ayala Group of Cos.
The CRBP is the first comprehensive set of principles to guide private-sector companies on the full range of actions they can take in the workplace, marketplace and community to respect and support children’s rights. While the business and human rights agenda has evolved significantly in recent years, a child-rights perspective has not yet been sufficiently addressed.
The CRBP were released in 2012 in London, bringing together leading companies and experts to discuss and showcase ways in which business can respect and support children’s rights in their core operations.
This year the principles will be introduced to the Philippine business community with the aim to inspire companies to incorporate a child rights’ lens to their business practices.
“Because children under the age of 18 account for almost a third of the world’s population, it is inevitable that businesses, whether small or large, will have an effect on the lives of children, both directly and indirectly. Children are affected by business in a variety of ways—as consumers, as members of employees’ families, as future employees themselves and as eventual business leaders. They also live in the communities and share the environments in which businesses operate,” Unicef Philippines Representative Lotta Sylwander said.
In the Philippines companies are beginning to rethink their business practices not only to respect—doing the minimum required to avoid infringing on children’s rights; but to support—taking voluntary actions that seek to advance the realization of children’s rights.
Unicef is convening government agencies and regulators, law enforcement, global organizations, Internet service providers and social networking service companies to stop the creation and circulation of online child sexual abuse content. Online child sexual abuse is the leading form of cybercrime in the Philippines.
Unicef Philippines also partnered with SM Supermarkets, one of the largest retail companies in the country, to assess the quality of the iodized salt sold in its supermarkets. As a result, all salt vendors of the SM Supermarket Group are now required to submit on a quarterly basis a valid Certificate of Analysis indicating the desired level of iodization, as prescribed by the FDA on all packaged salt supplied to their stores nationwide. Iodine is an essential nutrient for brain development that can increase a child’s IQ up to 15 points.