Safeguarding and remediation systems

The purpose of this indicator is to measure the establishment of systems designed to prevent, monitor, identify, mitigate risks leading to, and remediate child rights violations in the supply chains of private companies and those designed to safeguard children in sport settings.

Safeguarding in Tdh is an umbrella term used to describe all the necessary measures to prevent harm and respond to aid recipients (children and adults participating in Tdh’s and its partners interventions) and staff. This applies equally to both development and humanitarian assistance settings.

Child Safeguarding: is the responsibility that organizations must make sure their staff, operations, and programmes do no harm to children, that is that they do not expose children to the risk of harm and abuse and that any concerns the organization has about children’s safety within the communities in which they work are reported to the appropriate authorities.

Protection from Sexual Exploitation and Abuse and Harassment (PSEAH): The term is used by the UN and INGO community to refer to measures taken to protect people from and respond appropriately to sexual exploitation and abuse by their own staff and associated personnel targeted at community members.

Child Rights monitoring and Remediation System (CRMRS)[1]: A CRMRS aims to enhance child protection and support human rights due diligence in the supply chain of a private sector company. It is the system through which companies can prevent, monitor for, identify and mitigate and remediate their actual and potential adverse impacts on human rights and account for how they address such impacts. It ensures that children who are at risk of/or exposed to exploitation, violence, neglect, abuse and harassment are identified and receive an effective, timely, multi-sectoral and child-friendly response from relevant service providers under the local child protection system in a coordinated and accountable manner.

The CRMRS strengthens local and national child protection systems by supporting and working closely with both the national child protection authorities and existing community-based structures around extraction, processing and production sites of raw materials and products.

Child rights violations: Tdh thereby focuses on the violation of children’s rights to live free from abuse, violence, neglect and exploitation.

Supply chain: usually referred to as the ‘upstream supply chain’ as well means the sites, communities, and sourcing/origin countries where the supply chain starts and where companies source their raw materials from or produce their goods.

Private sector company: Includes both Swiss and non-Swiss based multinationals with global supply chains, as well as private sector companies serving domestic markets.

Commodities: Include raw materials used to manufacture consumer products or primary agricultural products that can be traded, bought or sold, such as gold, coffee and cocoa.

Organisation: An organization refers to any structured group, association, or entity—such as a charity, NGO, school, healthcare provider, or business—that provides services, activities, or support to individuals, especially vulnerable groups. Within safeguarding, organizations are responsible for developing policies, protocols, and practices to prevent harm, abuse, or neglect, ensuring the well-being and safety of those they serve.

Institutions: An institution is generally a larger, often publicly funded or government-run establishment, or a system that serves a defined purpose within society, such as education, justice, or healthcare. Institutions, such as schools, hospitals, or the judicial system, hold a duty of care and are often bound by specific legal safeguarding obligations to protect those within their care from abuse or neglect.

Sectors: In the context of safeguarding, sectors refer to different areas of society, industries, or professional fields that engage with or have responsibilities towards vulnerable groups, such as children, young people, and at-risk adults. Each sector has specific safeguarding roles and duties depending on its interaction with these groups and its societal influence. (e.g education, healthcare, social services, justice and law enforcement, sports and recreation sector, civil society sector, community and voluntary work, technology and digital sector)

Some examples include:

• Example 1: A local NGO establishes a child safeguarding framework/ review/improves its framework based on the technical support/advice provided by Tdh delegation/CP expertise advisors.

• Example 2: A multinational private sector company in the coffee industry sets up a child rights monitoring and remediation system in its global supply chain with the technical support and advice of Tdh.

• Example 3: A sports entity is technically supported with ongoing coaching sessions to improve their safeguarding system

[1] Child Rights Monitoring and Remediation Systems (CRMRS) refers to the international legal frameworks for human rights due diligence within the business sector. It is the system through which private companies can prevent, monitor for, identify and mitigate and remediate their actual and potential adverse impacts on human rights and account for how they address such impacts within their international supply chains.

Limitations:

• Ensuring the accuracy of reported data may be challenging due to potential discrepancies in how systems are defined and reported by different entities.

• There may be variations in the scope and effectiveness of the systems, which are not captured by a simple count.

• Some systems may be informal or undocumented, leading to underreporting.

Precautions:

• Regularly update and validate data sources to ensure the accuracy and reliability of the indicator.

• Consider qualitative assessments to complement the quantitative data, providing deeper insights into the effectiveness and challenges of the systems.

• Collaborate with key stakeholders to standardize definitions, models, approaches and reporting methods for better consistency and comparability.

• Provide training to organizations on the importance of documenting and reporting on CRMRS and safeguarding systems.

• Trends over time in the establishment of safeguarding and child rights monitoring and remediation systems.

• Distribution of these systems across different sectors and commodities.

• Effectiveness and impact of these systems on reducing the risk of violence against children.

• Comparison of systemestablishment rates across different regions or countries.