Global Child Forum

Global Child Forum
The Global Child Forum is a Swedish non-profit foundation, based in Stockholm, Sweden. The organization was founded by King Carl XVI Gustaf and Queen Silvia of Sweden in 2009 in order to advance children’s rights in accordance with the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.
The focus of Global Child Forum is grounded in both the Convention on the Rights of a Child and UNICEF's 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 the 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
Bjorn Grindberg – head of social investment, Millicom
Driekie Havenga- group ethics officer, Nedbank
Benyam Dawit Mezmur – chairperson, UN Committee on the Rights of the Child
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
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
Winne Byanyima- executive director, Oxfam International
Petter Johnsen – chief investment officer, equity strategies, Norges Bank Investment Management
Stefan Löfven – prime minister, Sweden
Charlotte Petri Gornitzka – director-general, Sida
Seokpil Kim – executive vice president, public affairs, Samsung
Karl Henrik Sundström – chief executive officer, Stora Enso
Regional Forum - Southeast Asia 2016
YW Junardy – member, UN Global Compact
Dato Sri Rohani Abdul Karim – minister, Ministry of Women, Family and Community Development, Malaysia
Simon Lord – group sustainability officer, Sime Darby
H.E Le Luong Minh – secretary general, ASEAN
Thomas Thomas – CEO, ASEAN CSR Network
Regional Forum - South America 2017
H.E Michel Temer – President of the Republic of Brazil
Clara Lopez Obregon – Minister of Labor, Colombia
Luis Alberto Moreno – Inter-American Development Bank
Mike Parra – chief executive officer of the Americas, DHL Express
Marta Santos Pais – representative of the UN Secretary General 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
Natalie Au - global director, Girl Effect
Lydia Capolicchio - moderator
Anna Maria Corazza Bildt - member, European Parliament
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 - chief executive director and executive director, United Nations Global Compact
HRH Princess Laurentien of the Netherlands - founder, Missing Chapter Foundation
Fatoumata Ndiaye - deputy executive director, management, UNICEF
Hanna Roberts - chief executive officer, GES International
Nina Schefte - corporate social responsibility manager, Norsk Hydro
Paul Schoenmakers - head of impact, Tony's Chocolonely
Julie Wallace - global head, community engagement, Standard Chartered Bank
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, 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 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 on companies who have scored highly on benchmarks.
The Children’s Rights and Business Atlas is a risk assessment 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 UNICEF.
References
External links
Organizations established in 2009
Child-related organizations in Sweden