Hotels and Human Trafficking: Room for Improvement

As many as 2 million children, mainly girls but also a significant number of boys, are sexually exploited in the multi-billion dollar commercial sex trade each year according to the United Nations. While prohibited under international protocols and legislation in countries around the world, sex trade crimes have been reported in at least 97 countries, violating not only the basic rights of children, but also their right to have a childhood.

Of increasing concern is the rise in “sex tourism,” where adults travel to foreign countries to engage in sexual activity with children. While well established in many Asian countries, this practice is now emerging in other parts of the world, including Africa.

Prior to the World Cup soccer tournament in South Africa, Christian Brothers Investment Services (CBIS) organized a letter signed by 300 groups, including faith-based organizations and socially responsible investors, including members of the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility (ICCR), to be sent to eight major hotel chains in South Africa to learn what actions were being taken to combat child sexual exploitation in advance of the event. The hotel chains contacted included Accor (brands include Formule1, Mercure, Sofitel), Best Western, Hilton, Hyatt, Carlson (brands include Radisson, Country Inn & Suites; shareholder of Rezidor Hotel Group in South Africa), InterContinental (brands include Holiday Inn, Crowne Plaza), Starwood (brands include Westin, Sheraton) and NH Hotels.

While they are not responsible for these crimes, hotels can help stop the use of their facilities for trafficking purposes. The potential for child sexual exploitation to occur in these establishments compels us to encourage hotels to train staff to be observant of the signs of human trafficking, work with local authorities to protect victims, encourage employees to report incidents to hotel management, provide guests with information about trafficking laws and phone numbers to report abuses and keep stakeholders informed about the hotel’s progress in enacting these measures.

How did the hotels respond to the call to action?

The full results, detailed in the CBIS report, “Hotels and Human Trafficking at the World Cup,” available at www.cbisonline.com/page.asp?id=1047, reveal that there is much room for improvement by the world’s largest hotel chains to develop human rights policies that specifically address child sexual exploitation and human trafficking.

Of the eight hotels evaluated, four reported taking action in South Africa by training staff in advance of the event — Hyatt, NH Hotels, Accor and Carlson. Of these, Carlson and Accor have exemplary programs to emulate. They not only took action in South Africa but also have ethical policies and training programs that address these issues on an ongoing basis at many of their hotels around the globe.

However, the majority of the hotels surveyed are not addressing human trafficking in a coordinated and integrated manner. While Starwood and InterContinental have important elements of a program, these companies and, in particular, Best Western and Hilton, have the opportunity to create a systemic approach to manage social impacts, including child sexual exploitation. Doing so would create a competitive advantage within the sector, enhancing the company’s public profile with current and future customers, and better managing reputational, legal and financial risk.

The conclusions drawn from CBIS’ report echo those of a recent study by sustainability consultancy Two Tomorrows, which found the world’s largest hotel groups lag behind other industries in addressing the wide range of social and environmental challenges facing the sector. Whether it is in advance of the 2012 London Olympics or other major events that could create a situation where human trafficking might flourish, hotels can help combat child sexual exploitation by committing to the following:

  1. Create clearly formulated and well-monitored policies and programs to address human trafficking and child sexual exploitation. Accor and Carlson were most active in South Africa and the only hotels with an overall systematic approach to address human trafficking with robust and substantive programs and policies on child sexual exploitation. Last year alone, Accor trained 13,000 employees about human trafficking and has identified it as a top priority of its sustainable development program since 2006. Another industry leader, Carlson, trains every new employee and provides refresher training annually on human trafficking. Both companies have an ethical policy regarding commercial sexual exploitation of children and have introduced a clause in contracts with suppliers stating a common repudiation of commercial sexual exploitation of children.
  2. Develop a policy that protects the rights of children and condemns all forms of exploitation of children as a first step to address human trafficking and child sexual exploitation. Hotel chains with policies include Starwood, NH, Accor and Carlson. To learn ways to strengthen policies and develop training modules, companies can contact ECPAT (www.ecpat.net), a global network of organizations and individuals seeking to encourage the world community in the fight against the commercial sexual exploitation of children.
  3. Join The Code of Conduct for the Protection of Children from sexual exploitation in Travel and Tourism (www.thecode.org), or implement its elements, in order to provide a framework for the development of a credible and robust program. Three of the eight chains – Accor, NH Hotels, and Carlson – display leadership through this responsible tourism initiative funded by the UNICEF that includes six elements that suppliers of tourism services commit to implement, including establishing an ethical policy regarding commercial sexual exploitation of children and training the personnel in the country of origin and travel destinations. More than 900 organizations have demonstrated their commitment to learn about innovative programs and policies and share best practices.
  4. Share information about programs and policies on human trafficking with guests, shareholders, and other stakeholders. Disclosure is an important aspect of corporate social responsibility and a critical tool for building trust with investors and the public. It allows investors and potential hotel guests to evaluate a company’s progress over time and compare performance to that of other hotels.

Travelers can also help in the effort to stop human trafficking by giving their business to hotel chains with robust and substantive programs and policies that address the issues. Let hotels know that you considered these policies specifically when choosing their hotel. Travelers who stay elsewhere can give a letter to the front desk to voice their concern about human trafficking. A sample letter can be downloaded from the CBIS web site at www.cbisonline.com/page.asp?id=1017.

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