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3.4. Children's Rights
One does not need to be an expert in the dynamics of the human soul to understand why childrens rights were of such importance in the Business Strategy of Rosy Blue, as part of CSR. In fact, it is said literally in the Business Dialogue that opens the CEO's soul to us, when he answered the question of whether this strategic choice is driven by philanthropy. The answer was without any further detour or hesitation: "Let me take you back to the year 1933, when my father was born in a small town Patan, in the State of Gujarat. Like many of India's children, his life was far from divine. His mom passed away when he was 2 years old, 3 years later he lost his dad. Survival was his only option". What follows now is a description, in very concrete terms, of how this existential story of identity, embedded in a religiously and ethically driven world view, has become a visible and codified form of strategy of a major corporation, run by this father's son, about 80 years later. The description will be factual and detached.
Developed by UNICEF(15), the UN Global Compact and Save the Children - the Children's Rights and Business Principles (the Principles) are the first comprehensive set of principles to guide companies on the full range of actions they can take in the workplace, marketplace, community and environment to respect and support children's rights.
The Children's Rights and Business Principles are the result of an international multi-stakeholder consultation process that was conducted throughout most of 2011. Consultation was conducted with children, business, investors, trade unions, civil society, governments, academics, and UN entities. More than 600 people participated in face-to-face meetings that took place in 10 cities (New York, London, Copenhagen, Dubai, Shanghai, Beijing, Nairobi, Buenos Aires, Istanbul, Geneva), or through online consultations. An online feedback channel was launched by the Business and Human Rights Resource Centre. Additionally, several thousand people were reached in the initiative's efforts to build awareness of the Principles in advance of their official release.
The Children's Rights and Business Principles are ten principles that call on business everywhere to respect and support children's rights throughout their activities and business relationships. They identify actions that all business should take and are encouraged to take to maximize the positive impacts and minimize the negative ramifications that their activities may have on children.
The Principles are derived from the Convention on the Rights of the Child and reinforce key international instruments like ILO Conventions on child labour, and soft law instruments like the UN Global Compact and the Guiding Principles on business and human rights. They also reiterate standards in codes and initiatives in areas such as marketing and child protection. In this way, they seek to connect the dots, bringing together in one place standards that have already existed for some time. The Principles are thus built on existing standards, initiatives and best practices related to business and children, and seek to fill gaps to present a coherent vision for business to maximize
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