The Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) was adopted by the UN General Assembly in 1989. It is the first international treaty to place a comprehensive legal obligation on State parties to protect all children from all forms of abuse, violence, neglect and exploitation. Two optional protocols, adopted in 2000, supplement the CRC. One addresses the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography and the other bans the involvement of children (under 18) in armed conflict.

Each country is expected to enact national law which follows these principles and guides the implementation of public policies to protect children. Still, there are millions and millions of children suffering from different type of abuses and suffering from violated rights.

Facts

10.9 million children under five die in developing countries each year. Malnutrition and hunger-related diseases cause 60 percent of the deaths.

72 million children do not have access to education.

About 3 million children suffer from Aids. Many of these children lack access to sufficient healthcare and therefore die from common deceases such as malaria, diarrhea and pneumonia.  70 percent of all people that suffer from HIV lives south of Sahara – Aids is the most common cause of death in this region. HIV/AIDS pandemic has reduced the adult workforce and diverted expenditure away from social protection and education, pushing boys and girls into harmful work.

According to ILO more than 200 million children in the world are involved in child labour, out of these 115 million are considered to be in hazardous work including trafficking, armed conflict, slavery, and sexual exploitation.

Several tens of thousands of children have been coerced or induced into armed forces or groups to serve as child soldiers

Over the next decade. 175 million children are likely to be affected every year by natural disasters.

Source:
www.wfp.org/hunger/stats, http://resourcecentre.savethechildren.se, http://ww.rb.se

How can SEB contribute?

SEB have the possibility and thereby the responsibility to impact in benefit of the wellbeing of children. Within SEB we are working actively to advance our ethical, environmental and social responsibility. As a financial provider we can impact our customers, portfolio companies and other partners to be aware of risks and manage them in a responsible way. Many of our customers and portfolio companies are present in regions where the risk of children’s rights being violated is present. In order for SEB to manage our responsibility in a systematic way we are implementing a statement paper on Child Labour. The document is intended to guide our employees in their profession and we have initiated a complimentary education for selected employees. SEB supports ECPAT and follows the ECPAT and Banking coalition against Child Pornography.

Save the Children has established a resource center on child protection and child rights. The center provides information on the status for children around the world regarding safety, health, living conditions, education, their rights and how the rights should and must be protected. The center also provides information legislation, governance and systems that are to be applied in order to safeguard and monitor the protection of children´s rights.

To learns more about Save the Children’s resource center on child protection and child rights please visit http://resourcecentre.savethechildren.se/ and to learn more about Save the Children, please visit http://www.rb.se/