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The Marriott hotel group has revised its human rights policy
specifically to tackle the sexual exploitation of children on its
premises after shareholders filed a resolution on the subject and held
talks with the company.
The shareholders said they were concerned because more than two million children are exploited in an organized way every year in many countries, including Cambodia, India, Thailand and Vietnam. The children forced into the trade have an average age of 14, but some are only five years old.
The child sex trade is a multi-million-dollar industry involving tour guides, websites and brothel maps.
The shareholders’ action follows a case in 1999 in which a man was jailed for eight years for aggravated pimping of minors in a child sex tourism network that included receptionists at the San Jose Marriott in Costa Rica.
Marriott is now in touch with non-governmental organizations in its efforts to eliminate the trade. In its hotels the company is training employees to recognize warning signs and is including a United Nations brochure on the child sex trade in the 20 million pre-arrival messages it sends to guests throughout the world every year. The policy is overseen by a human rights task force of nine high-ranking executives.
Marriott was ‘extremely responsive’ after the resolution was filed, said Lauren Compere, shareholder advocacy director of Boston Common Asset Management, which took the action with the First Swedish National Pension Fund. ‘The pension funds in Europe have a conventions-based approach,’ she said. ‘They generally look at potential violators of international codes and norms, and Marriott fit the bill because of the Costa Rica case.’
David Batstone, author of Not for sale: the return of the global slave trade and how we can fight it, welcomed the Marriott decision and said: ‘The reason I am enthused about this corporate commitment is that most major hotel chains have dragged their feet to make a public stand against sex trafficking – it’s almost as if they are afraid to draw too much attention to the crisis, and thereby be identified as a site of exploitation.
‘Their silence, however, is damning, as we will never offer serious resistance to sex trafficking if the tourist industry does not get involved in a major way. It’s that simple, and urgent.’
He pointed out, however: ‘Its weakness, on the other hand, is that it does not set up clear channels for monitoring and reporting trafficking abuses. It could go a step further to offer employee training in the protocol for reporting sex trafficking first to the public justice system.
‘Taken in isolation, corporate policies like the one that Marriott has developed in partnership with NGOs will not deliver the total solution to child slavery, but each advance in policy and public awareness builds an environment wherein kidnapping children from their homes and forcing them into heinous acts will not be tolerated.’
A broader campaign targeting travel and tourism companies is being co-ordinated by the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility. David Schilling, its human rights programme director, said: ‘Companies do not want to see a resolution on their ballot that raises the issue of child sexual exploitation because it is such an egregious violation of children’s human rights.’
The shareholders said they were concerned because more than two million children are exploited in an organized way every year in many countries, including Cambodia, India, Thailand and Vietnam. The children forced into the trade have an average age of 14, but some are only five years old.
The child sex trade is a multi-million-dollar industry involving tour guides, websites and brothel maps.
The shareholders’ action follows a case in 1999 in which a man was jailed for eight years for aggravated pimping of minors in a child sex tourism network that included receptionists at the San Jose Marriott in Costa Rica.
Marriott is now in touch with non-governmental organizations in its efforts to eliminate the trade. In its hotels the company is training employees to recognize warning signs and is including a United Nations brochure on the child sex trade in the 20 million pre-arrival messages it sends to guests throughout the world every year. The policy is overseen by a human rights task force of nine high-ranking executives.
Marriott was ‘extremely responsive’ after the resolution was filed, said Lauren Compere, shareholder advocacy director of Boston Common Asset Management, which took the action with the First Swedish National Pension Fund. ‘The pension funds in Europe have a conventions-based approach,’ she said. ‘They generally look at potential violators of international codes and norms, and Marriott fit the bill because of the Costa Rica case.’
David Batstone, author of Not for sale: the return of the global slave trade and how we can fight it, welcomed the Marriott decision and said: ‘The reason I am enthused about this corporate commitment is that most major hotel chains have dragged their feet to make a public stand against sex trafficking – it’s almost as if they are afraid to draw too much attention to the crisis, and thereby be identified as a site of exploitation.
‘Their silence, however, is damning, as we will never offer serious resistance to sex trafficking if the tourist industry does not get involved in a major way. It’s that simple, and urgent.’
He pointed out, however: ‘Its weakness, on the other hand, is that it does not set up clear channels for monitoring and reporting trafficking abuses. It could go a step further to offer employee training in the protocol for reporting sex trafficking first to the public justice system.
‘Taken in isolation, corporate policies like the one that Marriott has developed in partnership with NGOs will not deliver the total solution to child slavery, but each advance in policy and public awareness builds an environment wherein kidnapping children from their homes and forcing them into heinous acts will not be tolerated.’
A broader campaign targeting travel and tourism companies is being co-ordinated by the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility. David Schilling, its human rights programme director, said: ‘Companies do not want to see a resolution on their ballot that raises the issue of child sexual exploitation because it is such an egregious violation of children’s human rights.’
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