Why is this important?

To show that the company takes children’s rights issues seriously, children’s rights should, at a minimum, be considered in a materiality assessment or in an assessment of salient human rights issues (or be included in a larger group of questions therein, e.g. decent labour or human rights). The way that companies conduct materiality assessments often excludes children as stakeholders. The consequences are that topics relating to company impact that are important to children are not considered or are considered less important.

About the scoring

A score of 10 is given if child labour or family-friendly workplace – either in the company’s own operations or in the supply chain – is a topic in a publicly available materiality analysis/matrix, or it is clear from reporting related to material/salient issues that these topics are included under broader ones, such as:

• Human rights
• Labour rights
• Gender equality
• Non-discrimination policy
• Employees
• Supply chain management

E.g. if child labour is included in, for instance, Human or Labour Rights and if these topics are set forth as being material. Note, if a children’s rights topic such as child labour has been considered, but is not stated to be a prioritized/top material issue, it is nonetheless assigned a score of 10 for having been assessed.

A score of 5 is given if it is clear from a publicly available materiality analysis/matrix that human rights are considered salient/material, but children’s rights are not specifically and extensively identified as salient/material.

Indicator reference

Children’s Rights and Business Principles:

• All business should meet their responsibility to respect children’s rights and commit to supporting the human rights of children (Principle 1)

OECD MNE Guidelines:

• Part 1, Chapter 2, p. 14, A11
• Part 1, Chapter 2, p. 15, A15
• Part 1, Chapter 4, p. 25, 5

OECD DD Guidelines:

• Chapter 2, p.25, 2.1
• Chapter 2, p. 25, 2.1
• Chapter 2, p. 27, 2.3

ESRS Indicators: IRO-1, SBM-2, SBM-3, S1-2, S2-2