June 2023

This June (2023) marked the World Day Against Child Labour and the beginning of the final negotiation phase of a landmark piece of legislation for responsible business in Brussels, the EU Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive. Human rights due diligence is an essential part of companies’ responsibility to respect human rights, including children’s rights. EU policymakers have now a critical opportunity and a great responsibility to ensure that children are not overlooked in companies’ due diligence...

IKEA supports an EU-wide, well-designed mandatory human rights and environmental due diligence law to strengthen ways of working in the Single Market and serve as an important benchmark for the rest of the world. We welcome the proposal and urge for a harmonised legislation across the EU on human rights, including children’s rights and environmental due diligence, which is mandatory and proportionate across the entire value chain, including financial institutions, and relies on a risk-based approach...

We believe that due diligence can make a significant difference for people and the planet by helping businesses embed sustainability into their governance and decision-making, including enabling awareness and action to address impacts on groups in vulnerable situations, including children. 

This is why it is crucial that the Parliament, Commission and Council also ensure that children’s rights and needs are explicitly included in the EU Directive on Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence. It will ensure that companies must take steps to prevent and mitigate risks to children in their activities, products, services and operations, from child labour to environmental degradation, from malnutrition to well-being. 

This, in turn, will also incentivise those who are not doing it yet to act, thus levelling the playing field and bringing positive impact for children at scale. 

In this context, we are calling for EU legislation on human rights and environmental due diligence throughout the value chain, which covers the full range of adverse impacts on children. In a world in which business is intrinsic to the economic and social dimensions that revolve around children and that influence their lives, experiences, and future, children’s rights and needs are critical to every business.