CJ CheilJedang Joins UN Effort to End Child Labor... Launches 'Human Rights Management System' Initiative

[Asia Economy Reporter Seungjin Lee] CJ CheilJedang announced on the 10th that it will join the United Nations (UN) efforts to eradicate child labor and officially establish a ‘human rights management system.’

This is one of the first agenda items reviewed by the Sustainability Management Committee within the CJ CheilJedang board of directors. The company plans to lay the foundation for sustainable management by proactively identifying and improving human rights risks not only for its employees but also for its subsidiaries and partners.

In line with the UN-designated ‘2021 Year for the Elimination of Child Labor,’ CJ CheilJedang joined the ‘Child Labor Abolition Action Pledge’ of the International Labour Organization (ILO), a specialized UN agency. As a global food and bio company, it aims to pursue ‘ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) management’ that respects the human rights of all stakeholders.

Child labor is defined as high-risk, long-hour, and underage child work, with an estimated 150 million children exploited worldwide. The UN aims to eliminate child labor by 2025 and end forced labor, human trafficking, and modern slavery by 2030.

CJ CheilJedang actively supports these goals and plans to proactively identify potential child labor issues in overseas workplaces and supply chains, focusing on establishing and implementing management measures. Specifically, the company will ▲ concretize child labor eradication provisions within the CJ CheilJedang Human Rights Declaration ▲ expand consensus among stakeholders ▲ review and improve phased implementation plans ▲ disclose progress through sustainability management reports.

Currently, CJ CheilJedang’s global bases for food and bio businesses span 50 locations, including Asian markets such as Japan, Vietnam, and China, as well as the United States, Germany, Australia, and Brazil.

Since establishing its ‘Human Rights Declaration’ in 2017, CJ CheilJedang has been striving to comply with international human rights standards and labor laws, including the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights and national labor laws. With the full-scale establishment of the human rights management system this year, the company will focus on ▲ establishing basic principles of the human rights management declaration ▲ human rights management education and promotion ▲ conducting human rights impact assessments ▲ improving human rights violation remedy processes.

In particular, regarding human rights impact assessments, the company plans to develop human rights risk assessment indicators and standard manuals for employees and stakeholders. This will be conducted primarily at domestic workplaces and partner companies this year and expanded to overseas workplaces from next year.

A CJ CheilJedang official said, “We recognize that efforts to respect human rights, including the eradication of child labor, are fundamental to corporate activities,” adding, “We will do our best to prevent human rights risks that may arise in domestic and overseas workplaces and throughout the entire value chain in advance.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.