Call for submission on Draft One of the Committee on the Rights of the Child's General Comment on Child Rights and Business Sector

(In follow-up to the Committee’s Call for Submissions on the Annotated Outline of the General Comment in April 2012)

The Committee on the Rights of the Child (‘the Committee’) has had a long-standing interest in how the activities and operations of business enterprises affect different aspects of children's lives, and can have both a positive and negative impact on States Parties’ implementation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) and its Protocols.

The Committee recognises that business enterprises can be an essential driver for societies and economies to advance in ways which strengthen the realisation of child rights through, for example, employment generation, technological advances and investment. However, they can also cause, or contribute to, a wide range of violations of child rights.

In this context, the Committee is in the process of producing a General Comment on Child Rights and Business that will aim to provide States Parties with a framework for implementation of the Convention as a whole with regard to the business sector. It will include guidance on the measures of implementation that are required to: prevent and remedy violations of child rights by business actors, and ensure business enterprises carry out their responsibilities in the realisation of the rights of the child and encourage business to positively contribute to the realisation of these rights.

The General Comment will be guided by the principles of the CRC throughout: the best interests of the child, the right to non-discrimination, the right to be heard and the right to life, survival and development.

In its on-going drafting process for this General Comment, the Committee had prepared an annotated outline. This annotated outline was the basis of the Committee’s first call for submissions relating to this General Comment between 20 March and 1 May. The submissions received in response to that first call for submissions have been considered and, where appropriate, taken into account.

In addition to the first call for submissions mentioned above and multi-stakeholder consultations, the Committee welcomes inputs on the first draft of its General Comment. Submissions from interested organizations and individuals who have experience or information on State party obligations under the Convention in relation to the business sector would be particularly welcome.

Submissions of both a conceptual and empirical nature would be welcomed by the Committee and should:

• Focus specifically on States' obligations under the Convention on the Rights of the Child (ie. what States do or should do in relation to business to ensure the rights of the child become a reality);

• Aim at raising issues that the contributor would like to recommend be covered in the General Comment, including comments on specific issues in the outline that could be further developed and/or highlighting issues which are not currently addressed in the outline; such suggestions might be substantiated with relevant case studies or data;

• Wherever possible, draw on the practical experience of the submitting organisation (including NGOs, unions or enterprises) or individual and be focused on the rights of the child.

Additionally, in providing submissions, the Committee requests that the following guidelines be adhered to:

• Submissions should be of no more than 5,000 words (approximately 10 pages) in format A4, font 12;
  
  
• Be submitted in one of the Committee’s three working languages, English, French or Spanish;
  
  
• Submissions exceeding 3,500 words (approximately 7 pages) should include an executive summary of no more than 500 words in length and table of contents;
  
  
• Persons or organisations providing submissions should also state their (i) Full Name; (ii) Affiliation and/or background in the subject area on the cover page of the submission;
  
  
• Submissions are to be sent by email to CRC-Child-Rights-Business@ohchr.org;
  
  
• In addition to specific submissions, longer publications or research which could be of interest for the General Comment can also be submitted; in such instances, these must include an Executive summary of no more than 500 words and a table of contents;
  
  
• The deadline for submissions is 24 August 2012.
  

Submissions received will be published in chronological order, in order of receipt on the CRC’s website for its General Comment, unless the submitting individual/organization especially requests the submission not to be made public.

The Committee reserves the right to refuse the publication of content that it considers inappropriate or containing abusive language Submissions will be taken into account by the Committee in its deliberations for its General Comment, however, the General Comment will be a product of the Committee and the decision to reflect or integrate views expressed in the submissions received will remain at the sole discretion of the Committee. The United Nations does not offer remuneration of any kind for inputs into General Comments or Recommendations.

The Committee expresses its appreciation in advance for your active support of its work.

• Annotated Outline of the Committee’s General Comment on Child Rights and the Business Sector
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• Draft One of the Committee’s General Comment on Child Rights and the Business Sector
• Submissions received on the Annotated Outline of the General Comment
• Submissions received on Draft One of the General Comment