Human Rights Watch has been documenting violations of the rights of children for many years...[T]he Children's Rights and Business Principles...has the potential to improve the protection and promotion of children's rights...[I]t is less clear how the principles will be translated into substantive changes in corporate behaviour...there is no requirement on those participating companies to submit to independent monitoring, and there are no penalties proposed for any company that endorses the principles but then acts in ways that contradict them...if advancing children's rights is so self-evidently and naturally consistent with businesses' interests in growth and profit, there would presumably be fewer instances of corporate involvement in human rights abuses...experience suggests that [Children's Rights and Business Principles] will need to be matched by sustained public, civil society and media scrutiny of corporate practice, alongside appropriate political and legal reforms, if they are to deliver real and lasting change to children around the world.