The Global Child Forum is a Swedish

non-profit A nonprofit organization (NPO), also known as a nonbusiness entity, nonprofit institution, not-for-profit organization, or simply a nonprofit, is a non-governmental (private) legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public, or so ...

foundation, based in

Stockholm Stockholm (; ) is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, most populous city of Sweden, as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in the Nordic countries. Approximately ...

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...

. The organization was founded by

King Carl XVI Gustaf Carl XVI Gustaf (Carl Gustaf Folke Hubertus; born 30 April 1946) is King of Sweden. Having reigned since 1973, he is the longest-reigning monarch in Swedish history. Carl Gustaf was born during the reign of his paternal great-grandfather, K ...

and

Queen Silvia of Sweden Silvia (born Silvia Renate Sommerlath; 23 December 1943) is Queen of Sweden as the wife of King Carl XVI Gustaf. She has held this title since her marriage to Carl XVI Gustaf in 1976. The king and queen have three children: Crown Princess Vict ...

in 2009 in order to advance children’s rights in accordance with the UN

Convention on the Rights of the Child The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (commonly abbreviated as the CRC or UNCRC) is an international international human rights treaty which sets out the civil, political, economic, social, health and cultural rights of ch ...

. The focus of Global Child Forum is grounded in both the Convention on the Rights of a Child and

UNICEF UNICEF ( ), originally the United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund, officially United Nations Children's Fund since 1953, is an agency of the United Nations responsible for providing Humanitarianism, humanitarian and Development a ...

'
Children’s Rights and Business Principles
and is aimed towards giving business an understanding of how and where their business might impact children.

History

Global Child Forum was founded in 2009 as World Child and Youth Forum (WCYF). The name was then shorted to Global Child Forum in 2012. Initially, WCYF was intended to be an independent group of decision-makers with the goal of discussing children’s rights and business while using the Royal Palace as a venue. Since then, the organization has expanded to include Regional Forums and conduct its own independent research.

Forums

Global Child Forum is best known for its global and regional forums. Each Forum consists of speaker sessions, panel discussions, and breakout Action Labs. Global forums are held at the Royal Palace in Stockholm and bring together top business leaders, political leaders, academics, and civil society representatives to discuss pressing issues related to children’s rights and business. Regional forums are designed to tackle children’s rights issues faced by that particular region with regional leaders in business, politics, academics, and civil society.

Global forums

To date, five global forums have been held at the Royal Palace. Approximately 300 global leaders in business, politics, civil society and academia have attended each of the forums. Each event has its own theme on issues concerning children’s rights and business. The latest global forum was 11 April 2018 and discussed investing in every child. During the 2018 Forum, the Global Child Forum Pledge was launched to encourage action amongst participants post-Forum. Additionally, for the first time, the Forum included child participants, Indonesian child laborers from th
It's Time to Talk!
report on child labour.

Regional forums

The regional forum is held every year in a new location. The forums brings together approximately 300 regional leaders in business, politics, civil society and academia to discuss issues concerning children’s rights and business within the context of their region. To date, the Global Child Forum has held four regional forums: one in the Middle East and North Africa
Southern Africa

Southeast Asia
and South America.

Notable speakers

Regional Forum - Southern Africa 2015

* Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma – head,

African Union Commission The African Union Commission (AUC) acts as the executive/administrative branch or secretariat of the African Union. It is headed by a chairperson and consists of a number of Commissioners dealing with different areas of policy. The African ...

* Bjorn Grindberg – head of social investment, Millicom * Driekie Havenga- group ethics officer,

Nedbank Nedbank Group is a financial services group in South Africa offering wholesale and retail banking services as well as insurance, asset management, and wealth management. Nedbank Limited is a wholly owned subsidiary of Nedbank Group. Headquarter ...

* Benyam Dawit Mezmur – chairperson,

UN Committee on the Rights of the Child The Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC) is a body of experts that monitor and report on the implementation of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. The committee also monitors the convention's three optional protoco ...

* Lindiwe Mokate – commissioner, South African Human Rights Commission * Geoff Rothschild – patron, Nelson Mandela Children's Hospital

Global Forum - Stockholm, Sweden 2015

* Anne-Birgitte Albrectsen – chief executive officer,

Plan International Plan International is a development and humanitarian organisation based in the United Kingdom that works in over 80 countries across Africa, the Americas, and Asia, focusing on children’s rights. In 2024, Plan International reached 43 million ...

* Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein – UN commissioner for human rights * H.E Shaikha Al Maskari – chief executive, Al Maskari Holding * Michael Baldinger – chief executive officer, RobecoSAM * Irina Bokova – director-general,

UNESCO The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO ) is a List of specialized agencies of the United Nations, specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) with the aim of promoting world peace and International secur ...

* Winne Byanyima- executive director, Oxfam International * Petter Johnsen – chief investment officer, equity strategies, Norges Bank Investment Management * Stefan Löfven –

prime minister A prime minister or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. A prime minister is not the head of state, but r ...

, Sweden * Charlotte Petri Gornitzka – director-general, Sida * Seokpil Kim – executive vice president, public affairs,

Samsung Samsung Group (; stylised as SΛMSUNG) is a South Korean Multinational corporation, multinational manufacturing Conglomerate (company), conglomerate headquartered in the Samsung Town office complex in Seoul. The group consists of numerous a ...

* Karl Henrik Sundström – chief executive officer, Stora Enso

Regional Forum - Southeast Asia 2016

* YW Junardy – member,

UN Global Compact The United Nations Global Compact is a non-binding United Nations pact to get businesses and firms worldwide to adopt sustainable and socially responsible policies, and to report on their implementation. The UN Global Compact is the world's ...

* Dato Sri Rohani Abdul Karim – minister, Ministry of Women, Family and Community Development,

Malaysia Malaysia is a country in Southeast Asia. Featuring the Tanjung Piai, southernmost point of continental Eurasia, it is a federation, federal constitutional monarchy consisting of States and federal territories of Malaysia, 13 states and thre ...

* Simon Lord – group sustainability officer, Sime Darby * H.E Le Luong Minh – secretary general,

ASEAN The Association of Southeast Asian Nations, commonly abbreviated as ASEAN, is a regional grouping of 10 states in Southeast Asia "that aims to promote economic and security cooperation among its ten members." Together, its member states r ...

* Thomas Thomas – CEO, ASEAN CSR Network

Regional Forum - South America 2017

* H.E

Michel Temer Michel Miguel Elias Temer Lulia (; born 23 September 1940) is a Brazilian politician, lawyer and writer who served as the 37th president of Brazil from 31 August 2016 to 1 January 2019. He took office after the Impeachment of Dilma Rousseff, impe ...

– President of the Republic of Brazil * Clara Lopez Obregon – Minister of Labor,

Colombia Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country primarily located in South America with Insular region of Colombia, insular regions in North America. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the Caribbean Sea to the north, Venezuel ...

* Luis Alberto Moreno –

Inter-American Development Bank The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB or IADB) is an international development finance institution headquartered in Washington, D.C., United States of America. It serves as one of the leading sources of development financing for the countri ...

* Mike Parra – chief executive officer of the Americas, DHL Express * Marta Santos Pais – representative of the

UN Secretary General The secretary-general of the United Nations (UNSG or UNSECGEN) is the chief administrative officer of the United Nations and head of the United Nations Secretariat, one of the United Nations System#Six principal organs, six principal organs of ...

on Violence against Children * Paulo Skaf – president, Federation of Industries of the State of São Paulo ( FIESP)

Global Forum - Stockholm, Sweden 2018

Crown Princess Victoria of Sweden Victoria, Crown Princess of Sweden, Duchess of Västergötland (Victoria Ingrid Alice Désirée; born 14 July 1977) is the heir apparent to the Swedish throne, as the eldest child of King Carl XVI Gustaf. If she ascends to the throne as expec ...

* Natalie Au - global director, Girl Effect * Lydia Capolicchio - moderator * Anna Maria Corazza Bildt - member,

European Parliament The European Parliament (EP) is one of the two legislative bodies of the European Union and one of its seven institutions. Together with the Council of the European Union (known as the Council and informally as the Council of Ministers), it ...

* Mikael Damberg - Minister for Enterprise and Innovation, Sweden * Johan Dennelind - chief executive officer, Telia Company * Professor Brian Ganson - head, Africa Centre for Dispute Settlement, University of Stellenbosch * Georg Kell - chairman, Arabesque *

Lise Kingo Lise Kingo (born 3 August 1961) is a Danish businesswoman who currently serves as Independent Board Director at Danone, Sanofi and Covestro. Kingo is also a member of the Advisory Board for Humanitarian and Development Aid at the Novo Nordisk ...

- chief executive director and executive director,

United Nations Global Compact The United Nations Global Compact is a non-binding United Nations pact to get businesses and firms worldwide to adopt sustainable and socially responsible policies, and to report on their implementation. The UN Global Compact is the world's ...

* HRH Princess Laurentien of the Netherlands - founder, Missing Chapter Foundation * Fatoumata Ndiaye - deputy executive director, management,

* Hanna Roberts - chief executive officer, GES International * Nina Schefte - corporate social responsibility manager,

Norsk Hydro Norsk Hydro ASA (often referred to as just ''Hydro'') is a Norway, Norwegian aluminium and renewable energy company, headquartered in Oslo. It is one of the largest aluminium companies worldwide. It has operations in some 50 countries around th ...

* Paul Schoenmakers - head of impact, Tony's Chocolonely * Julie Wallace - global head, community engagement,

Standard Chartered Bank Standard Chartered PLC is a British multinational bank with operations in wealth management, Wholesale banking, corporate and investment banking, and treasury services. Despite being headquartered in the United Kingdom, it does not conduct retai ...

* Carine Smith Ihenacho - chief corporate governance officer, Norges Bank Investment Management * Leon Wijnands - global head of sustainability, ING Bank

Research

The Global Child Forum conducts independent research and case studies. The benchmark reports, written in collaboration with the

Boston Consulting Group Boston Consulting Group, Inc. (BCG) is an American global management consulting firm founded in 1963 and headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts. It is one of the "Big Three (management consultancies), Big Three" (or MBB, the world's three large ...

, are developed to be presented at regional forums and evaluate the top 300 publicly traded companies from regions where regional forums are to be held, and assesses their commitment to children’s rights issues. Previously, the 2016 benchmark highlighted how the Nordic region lagged below the global average on children’s rights issues. During the

São Paulo São Paulo (; ; Portuguese for 'Paul the Apostle, Saint Paul') is the capital of the São Paulo (state), state of São Paulo, as well as the List of cities in Brazil by population, most populous city in Brazil, the List of largest cities in the ...

Forum in 2017, Global Child Forum presented a report which revealed that South American companies are underperforming overall in addressing children's rights. The Global Child Forum also conducts

case studies A case study is an in-depth, detailed examination of a particular case (or cases) within a real-world context. For example, case studies in medicine may focus on an individual patient or ailment; case studies in business might cover a particular fi ...

on companies who have scored highly on benchmarks.
The Children’s Rights and Business Atlas
is a

risk assessment Risk assessment is a process for identifying hazards, potential (future) events which may negatively impact on individuals, assets, and/or the environment because of those hazards, their likelihood and consequences, and actions which can mitigate ...

tool intended to help businesses identify and understand the risk of children’s rights violations and give an indication of the risks to children’s rights in different industries and countries. The Atlas covers 198 countries and territories and 10 industries and was developed in collaboration with

References

External links

* {{Official website, http://www.globalchildforum.org Organizations established in 2009 Child-related organizations in Sweden