Engaging young people and children in business - in pictures

Children clap during a learning activity in Ban Pho Preschool in Bac Han District in remote Lao Cai Province. The UNICEF-supported school promotes child participation and other activities in a safe learning environment and includes classes taught in the children’s indigenous language.To help prevent business activities from adversely affecting children’s rights, companies should ensure that stakeholder consultation processes consider the rights of the child. Photograph: UNICEF/NYHQ2009-0231/Estey/UNICEF/NYHQ2009-0231/Estey

A boy asks questions during a meeting with the Governor of Niamey in his office during the National Youth Forum on Children's Rights, held in Niamey, Niger. Children's viewpoints on matters that concern them can contribute to the creation of a child-friendly environment respectful of their rights in Niger. Photograph: UNICEF/NIGB2010-00360/Pirozzi/UNICEF/NIGB2010-00360/Pirozzi

Dieubenite Joseph draws a map of Pyechal – a village in Sud-Est Department, Haiti – during a Community-Led Total Sanitation (CLTS) meeting in the village. Child rights are everyone’s business. The unique perspectives of children can offer deep and relevant insights that impact the core value of a business. Through engaging in a variety of ways, the voices of these young stakeholders can be a powerful catalyst for innovation. Photograph: UNICEF/NYHQ2011-2113/Dormino/UNICEF/NYHQ2011-2113/Dormino

Richard Gillies, director of Plan A, CSR & sustainable business at Marks and Spencer, draws on a slate with children at a Shishu Bikash Kendra (childhood development centre at Seedstore), Bhaluka, Mymensingh, Bangladesh. Businesses play a vital role in helping shape a world where the rights of all children are upheld. Not only should they respect and support children’s rights, they can also promote them and become a champion for child rights. Photograph: UNICEF/BANA2012-01498/Khan/UNICEF/BANA2012-01498/Khan

A student from BRAC University talks with rural children during fieldwork on arsenic contamination at Doara Bazer, Sunamgonj, Bangladesh. When consulting with children, there will be various ways of creating the right environment to enable them to freely express their views, which includes interacting with caregivers, families and school. Photograph: UNICEF/BANA2013-00660/Haque/UNICEF/BANA2013-00660/Haque

Portraits by children who engaged in a discussion with UNICEF's Niger Country Office during the National Youth Forum on Children's Rights, held in Niamey, Niger. By providing the opportunities and space for child participation, children may voice out matters that concern them. For example, they can identify impacts and risks not considered by adult therefore enhancing business value at a strategic level. Photograph: UNICEF/NIGB2010-00361/Pirozzi/UNICEF/NIGB2010-00361/Pirozzi

AIDS youth ambassador, Liu Hui, speaks at the launch of a network of 100 AIDS youth ambassadors, at the Juyongguan Great Wall in China. Brave, passionate and deeply motivated, children bring unique attributes and thought-provoking solutions and challenges to many core issues that may be relevant to their lives. Photograph: UNICEF/NYHQ2006-0128/Mingfang/UNICEF/NYHQ2006-0128/Mingfang

Young reporters, writing for the Voice of Children monthly, in the Hoshangabad District, Madhya Pradesh, India. The key to genuine participation is ensuring respect of children’s views. Photograph: UNICEF/INDA2011-00023/Crouch/UNICEF/INDA2011-00023/Crouch

Delegate Helia Joyce, 16, of Mozambique, accompanied by a translator, listens to a question during the press conference following the close of the African Youth Forum (AYF) in the city of Entebbe, near Kampala. Provisions of the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) reflect children’s rights to participation. Photograph: UNICEF/NYHQ2010-1433/Hofer/UNICEF/NYHQ2010-1433/Hofer

Omraen el Wefi (foreground), an educator from the Integrated Centre for Youth and Children, talks with children at a photography workshop in Tunisia. Participation is an underlying value and an additional dimension to the universally recognised freedom of expression. As states Article 13 within the CRC : “The child shall have the right to freedom of expression; this right shall include freedom to seek, receive and impart information and ideas of all kinds, regardless of frontiers, either orally, in writing or in print, in the form of art, or through any other media of the child's choice.” Photograph: UNICEF/NYHQ2012-1389/Pirozzi/UNICEF/NYHQ2012-1389/Pirozzi