Gamze Erdem Türkelli: Children’s Rights and Business: Governing Obligations and Responsibility
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 11 February 2021
Summary
While the issue of business and human rights has been examined for quite some time, business and children‘s rights is a relatively new field that requires further research, especially in times of economic globalisation. The importance of targeting this issue is evident, as violations are frequent and children are dependent on others to be heard and seen. In Children's Rights and Business: Governing Obligations and Responsibility, Gamze Erdem T ü rkelli has created an impressive compendium of international developments and governing obligations regarding children's rights in situations where businesses are involved.
The book consists of three parts. As the author argues for a child-focused examination of human rights and business, Part I commences with reasoning for precisely that argument and presents an overview of relevant existing frameworks, incorporating academic writings as well as case law. Using this approach, the author demonstrates the weaknesses and protection gaps.
Part II focuses on global supply chains and investment projects, as that is the area in which children are mainly affected. Through a well structured and comprehensible illustration of four cases, explanations of the broader topic as well as a very detailed examination of the individual incidents are provided. The cases depict the versatile business-related restrictions of the enjoyment of children's rights. By means of these practical examples, the obstacles of assigning those responsible for a violation of children's rights in situations with various state and non-state actors, as well as the great diversity that lies within the international responses, are demonstrated.
To examine the relationship of children's rights and supply chains, the author draws upon case illustrations of ‘Child Labor and Cotton Production in Uzbekistan’ and ‘Mineral Extraction and Trade in the Democratic Republic of Congo’. As an initial step, two main difficulties raised by supply chain management and regulation are identified: traceability and, as termed by the author, ‘impactability’. Both cases are broadly analysed by outlining the situations, depicting the history of regulation of child labour and moments of conflict and mentioning national and international frameworks and assessing their effectiveness.
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- Information
- European Yearbook on Human Rights 2020 , pp. 647 - 648Publisher: IntersentiaPrint publication year: 2020