Corporations have been selling ‘ethical’ products and services to consumers for over three decades. Many of these efforts have been organised under the banner of corporate social responsibility (CSR), with proponents advocating this as a means to secure workers’ rights. Despite their well-documented limitations and brands acknowledging the need for improvements, most CSR initiatives continue to resist the structural changes needed. They instead prefer to tinker around the edges of a failed model.

Today, as we commemorate World Day Against Child Labor, we are calling on policymakers, consumers, corporate leaders and individuals everywhere to redouble their commitment to the fight to end child labor. The global community has made great progress over the past twenty years, but recently that progress has slowed. In 2016 the International Labour Organization (ILO) reported there were still 152 million child laborers – which is exactly 152 million too many. Those are children who are losing out on their childhood, their education, and their future.

There is a thirst for truth, accuracy and transparency among the public in our current political climate, and global multinationals are no exception to those expectations.