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26 April 2006

Tourism Industry Urged To Act Against Child Sexual Exploitation

Ambassador Miller says companies should follow code of conduct

By Charlene Porter
Washington File Staff Writer

Washington – The top U.S. policymaker on global trafficking in persons is calling on the travel and tourism industry to do more to help prevent the sexual exploitation of children in tourist destinations.

Speaking at a conference on human trafficking in Minnesota, Ambassador John Miller called on the travel and tourism industry to support a seven-year-old code of conduct to protect children from sexual exploitation.

“Develop ethical corporate policies against commercial sexual exploitation of children,” Miller said in an April 21 keynote speech at University of Minnesota conference entitled United Front for Children: Global Efforts to Combat Sexual Trafficking of Children in Travel and Tourism.

“Train your personnel to recognize and report suspect child sex tourism; and provide information to travelers informing them of the serious consequences of the commercial sexual abuse of a child,” Miller said.

More than 250 companies from the travel, tourism and hospitality industry have signed on to the code of conduct, which was developed by the nongovernmental organization ECPAT, which battles against child prostitution, with support from the World Tourism Organization. Signatories vow to pursue policies to prevent child sex tourism.

Moderately priced international travel, corruption, poverty and demand all are contributing to the exploitation of children in tourist destinations, experts say.

“This demand is created largely by sex tourists and pedophiles,” Miller said. “Many of these are from developed countries. They travel to lesser-developed countries to engage in commercial sex acts with children.”

Quantifying the numbers of victims ensnared by human traffickers is difficult because of the inherently illicit nature of the activity. The International Labor Organization estimates that some 550,000-700,000 children may be forced into commercial sexual exploitation each year, including domestic and international activity.

In its 2005 annual survey on human trafficking, the U.S. government found that some 600,000-800,000 people are trafficked across international borders, with two-thirds of those forced into commercial sex acts.  (See related article.)

THE CODE OF CONDUCT

The code of conduct to protect children from sexual exploitation in travel and tourism was adopted in 1998, an outgrowth of a world congress held on the issue in Sweden in 1996.

The World Tourism Organization maintains a secretariat administering the code, and coordinator Camelia Tepelus says some very prominent companies in the global tourism industry are signatories to the code. She cites the International Hotel and Restaurant Association; JTB, a Japanese company that is the largest tour operator in the world; and professional associations of travel agents in a number of European countries.

The largest U.S. corporate signatory is the Carlson Companies, a major conglomerate that owns subsidiaries such as Regent International Hotels, Radisson Hotels and Cruise Holidays.

“We have information about [the code and child sex tourism] on our company Internet site,” said Carlson Vice-President Deborah Cundy in an e-mail interview. “We talk about it at company meetings; we run ads and editorial content in our hotel publications and we include it on ticket stock.”

Becoming a signatory to the code was an easy decision for Carlson, Cundy wrote, consistent with other corporate policies on child welfare. It also has been a good business decision. “Our experience with customers, employees, partners and suppliers is that we are more respected as a result of our commitment,” Cundy said.

But secretariat coordinator Tepelus finds too few U.S. travel and tourism companies are willing to adopt the code, for a variety of reasons.

“Psychologically [child sexual exploitation] is difficult to deal with,” said Tepelus, but, she adds, no more so than other health and safety issues that the tourism-travel industry has dealt with. Providing customers with information about necessary shots, possible health risks and the dangers of pickpockets and muggings in tourist spots is routine activity for the tourist industry she said in an interview from the secretariat’s New York City headquarters.

GOVERNMENT ACTION

A U.S. law passed in 2003 mandates prosecution of American citizens who sexually abuse children abroad. Giving laws against this activity extra-territorial reach is a significant step to curtail these crimes.  The U.S. State Department says that 32 countries now have such laws.

The United States also is funding international efforts to combat this and other forms of trafficking. In his speech, Miller said the United States spent $95 million to fund 266 programs in 101 countries on these activities.

The United States is supporting NGO-sponsored public awareness campaigns to deter Americans from engaging in the sexual exploitation of children in the United States, Cambodia, Thailand, Costa Rica, Brazil and Mexico.

In India, the U.S.-supported program Prayas runs a network of shelters and centers for victimized children.

Miller urged his audience of academics, state and local governments to do still more, however, emphasizing the need for greater awareness about the issue in all sectors of U.S. and international society.

A University of Minnesota organizer of the conference, Barbara Frey, agrees that awareness still remains an obstacle.  There is an “invisibility and deniability” surrounding child sexual exploitation that allows “a lack of action to really focus on the demand and supply parts of this problem.”

Frey, director of the Human Rights Program at the University of Minnesota, said greater awareness and prevention of child sexual exploitation should be pursued recognizing the larger context of human rights issues involved, including child welfare, protection, poverty and education.

The tourism industry code of conduct is available on the ECPAT Web site.

A fact sheet on child sex tourism is available on the State Department Web site.

For more information on the issue, see Human Trafficking.