Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and child labour

Companies are increasingly concerned with child labour in their supply chains. They view it as inconsistent with company values, a threat to their image and ability to recruit and retain top employees, as well as to the sustainability of their supply chain. Child labourers can be found in all stages of supply chains, including in agriculture, manufacturing and retail.

The Social Dialogue Section of ILO-IPEC supports businesses' efforts to reduce child labour and to increase compliance with the ILO’s child labour standards: Convention No. 138 on Minimum Age and Convention No. 182 on Worst Forms of Child Labour. The Section does so through support for the multi-stakeholder Child Labour Platform and other relevant groups; Public-Private Partnerships to tackle child labour in supply chains and reinforce capacity of ILO constituents; and research and specialized projects, notably the development of guidance for business that uses the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights as a tool for business to ensure that they respect children’s right to be free from child labour, as enshrined in ILO Conventions.

Child Labour Platform

Launched in 2010 at The Hague Global Child Labour Conference, the Child Labour Platform (CLP) is a membership-based forum of exchange for businesses to share and learn from others’ approaches to tackling child labour in the supply chain.

Guidance Tool on the UN "Protect, Respect and Remedy" Framework and Child Labour

Following the UN Human Rights Council’s endorsement of the “Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights” in June 2011, the ILO and the International Organisation of Employers (IOE) launched the project "Guidance Tool on How to do Business with Respect for Children's Rights to be Free from Child Labour", to provide guidance on how companies can prevent child labour and contribute to child labour remediation, whether in their own operations or in their supply chains, through appropriate policies, due diligence and remediation processes.