COLLABORATING PARTNER SESSION

24 September | 14:30-16:00 ICT

Innovative Tools and Approaches for Businesses and Civil Society to Effectively Remedy Child Labour and Sexual Exploitation

Organized by:

Thailand Hotline Foundation (representing the Down to Zero Alliance in collaboration with ECPAT International)
The Global March Against Child Labour
The Centre for Child Rights and Business (representing the MY Voice Initiative in collaboration with Social Accountability International)
The Remedy Project

Background

Child labour remains a pervasive issue across industries, particularly in lower tiers of supply chains and informal work conditions in the Asia Pacific region. Additionally, growing risks to children extend beyond traditional supply chains, with the rise of digital platforms and technology facilitating new forms of exploitation, such as trafficking and sexual exploitation.

The reach and accessibility of traditional Organisational Grievance Mechanisms (OGMs) in lower tiers of supply chains are limited and not necessarily tailored to the needs of children. Coordinated, multi-stakeholder approaches are needed to dismantle the barriers that prevent child victims from accessing remedies that are in their best interests. In this context, community-based mechanisms, including practical on-the-ground programmes and Child Labour Monitoring Systems (CLMS) can play a crucial role in detecting and addressing child labour, offering a pathway to effective remedy.

This joint session brings together four organisations with expertise in child labour prevention and remediation, ending sexual exploitation and abuse of children, child rights, and human rights due diligence regulations. Together it invites participants to discuss how businesses, governments, NGOs and trade unions can work together to implement holistic and scalable solutions, from programmes and tools that align with human rights due diligence (HRDD) regulations to specialised support for victims, ensuring that all children have access to protection and remedy, no matter where the risks and abuse occurs.

Objectives

This session will explore innovative approaches, programmes, and tools that brands, retailers, CSOs, governments, and worker communities are using to address child labour and sexual exploitation across various sectors. The objective is to examine practical, multistakeholder strategies for scaling and integrating these solutions, with a focus on leveraging what already works instead of reinventing the wheel. By discussing regulatory impacts, sector-wide collaboration, and the inclusion of small-and-medium enterprises and communities, this session will highlight opportunities to enhance child-rights-centred approaches to remediation. Special attention will be given to analysing the efficacy of existing grievance mechanisms and practical approaches to overcoming barriers to access to remedy for children in Asia Pacific.

Key questions

What are the key challenges and opportunities in utilising current grievance and child labour monitoring systems, and how can they be improved to ensure better access to remedy for vulnerable children?
How do changing regulatory landscapes influence the effectiveness of child-centred approaches to remediation, and what actions are needed to ensure these frameworks prioritise children's best interests and create real impact?
How can community and sector-wide mechanisms be scaled to address child labour and exploitation in supply chains? And what opportunities exist for scaling innovations under new HRDD legislation?
How can partnerships between governments, businesses, NGOs and trade unions, SMEs and communities be strengthened to enhance the implementation of existing programmes and tools that address business-related child labour, sexual exploitation and trafficking?