STOCKHOLM, 26 November 2015: The Global Child Forum and UNICEF today launch the Children’s Rights and Business Atlas, a new digital platform which helps business assess and gauge their impact on children’s rights.

Launched at the Royal Palace in Stockholm, the Children’s Rights and Business Atlas is the first-of-its-kind and includes risk indices, global interactive maps and country scorecards, to help corporations identify and understand their risk of infringing on children’s rights. The Atlas provides a quantitative assessment on the degree to which children’s rights are protected within 198 countries and territories and across 10 business sectors.

The Atlas is the only free open-access online tool that offers users the ability to analyse and interpret complex data sets relating to children’s rights at the country- and industry-level to support businesses in decision-making.

“We initiated the Children’s Rights and Business Atlas to support businesses as they make key decisions that affect not only their operations – but also children,” said Dr. Fiona Rotberg, Research Director at Global Child Forum. “The Children’s Rights and Business Atlas guides companies to identify, assess and monitor the risks their operations pose to children’s rights. With full understanding of how children’s rights apply to their activities and relationships, companies can proactively respect and support children’s rights.”

“For the first time, we have a tool that provides detailed information that will allow businesses everywhere to work within their sphere of influence to respect and support children’s rights and wellbeing,” said Mr. Andrés Franco, Deputy Director of Private Sector Engagement at UNICEF. “Many businesses directly affect children’s lives so this is an important step which will enable them to make informed decisions based on the best interests of children.”

The Children’s Rights and Business Atlas is built on the Children’s Rights and Business Principles model, a 10-point checklist that equips businesses with the knowledge they need to respect and support children’s rights.

The Global Child Forum gathers 400 influential international decision makers from business, government, civil society and academia for a discussion on children’s rights. This year’s theme is children’s rights within the corporate sustainability agenda, with a focus on the benefit of cross-sector partnerships.

Explore the Children’s Rights and Business Atlas here: www.childrensrightsatlas.org

Read more about the Global Child Forum at the Royal Palace in Stockholm here: www.globalchildforum.org

Join in the conversation on Twitter: #gcf2015

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