Focus on children's rights when world leaders gather at the Global Child Forum
Press release Stockholm, April 11, 2014
Four hundred chosen leaders from the United Nations, child welfare organizations, multi-national corporations , financial institutions and academia are now targeting their focus on children's rights at the Global Child Forum. In its fourth year, the Global Child Forum will again be held at the Royal Palace in the presence of the King and Queen .
Also the World Trade Organization's General Secretary, Roberto Azevedo, will present the effect of international trade on issues regarding children’s rights:
- The crisis in recent years has hit many western economies hard – and one of the most worrying effects has been very high levels of youth unemployment. Trade can be part of the solution, because one of the key differences that trade makes is through job creation, stated Roberto Azevedo, Director - General, the World Trade Organization.
- Today, 25 years after the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child was adopted by almost all nations in the world, it is obvious that many parts of the global society has not yet accepted the message. At the Global Child Forum, our objective is to spread the message and aid every level of society in respecting and supporting children's rights - helping to create a more sustainable world, according to Ulf Karlberg, President, Global Child Forum .
The Global Child Forum and The Boston Consulting Group have jointly analyzed how over 1000 publicly traded companies in eight industries from the Forbes Global 2000 list, are addressing issues on children’s rights in the study "Children's rights and corporate sector – setting a benchmark ". This was also presented at the Forum.
- It was revealed that 13 percent of companies consider that the Board has a responsibility for children's rights, according to the study. We must work for the rights of children to be placed high on their agendas. Consumers are becoming more aware and increasingly demanding that companies take a stand and demonstrate how they are working on issues of children’s rights. How will consumers otherwise know with certainty that companies act based on the children 's best interest, questions Magdalena Kettis, Research Director, Global Child Forum.
“Children's Rights and the corporate sector – setting a benchmark” is taking a step towards developing a correlation between companies in the area. Publicly available information has been analyzed using nine indicators of how companies work with children´s rights. The main objective is to repeat the survey annually to track developments in a range of sectors and geographic locations over time.
About Global Child Forum
Global Child Forum is an independent, global multi-stakeholder platform for informed dialogue and thought leadership on how to advance children’s rights in support of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. The Global Child Forum aims at gathering leaders from business, governments, academia and civil society in a joint effort to implement children’s rights. This multi-stakeholder approach should be supported by effective information sharing, exposing leading case studies and learning from best practice from all parts of the world.