How can travel & tourism protect children from sexual exploitation?

Jod­ie Spen­cer tells us why the travel & tour­ism industry has a cru­cial role to play in pro­tect­ing chil­dren from sexu­al exploit­a­tion, out­lines some of the loc­al and glob­al efforts to do just that, and sug­gests how we can all play our part.

Travel & tour­ism brings a great deal to loc­al com­munit­ies. It gen­er­ates 10% of jobs world­wide, brings employ­ment to rur­al and remote areas, and is a lead­ing industry in gender equal­ity, employ­ing more women and young people than most oth­er sec­tors. Tour­ism is grow­ing year-on-year, how­ever this rap­id increase has not been matched with enhanced pro­tec­tion meas­ures for children. 

Traf­fick­ers see increased tour­ism as a chance to earn money from the sexu­al exploit­a­tion of chil­dren; a trend that is occur­ring around the globe. Here are two trend­ing scenarios: 

• In places where cus­tom­ers increas­ingly look for ‘authen­t­ic’ travel exper­i­ences, includ­ing homestays and vil­lage vis­its, chil­dren some­times become the “tour­ist attrac­tions” them­selves and can be pulled out of school to enter­tain guests. 

• To meet the grow­ing demand for ‘volun­tour­ism’, coun­ter­feit orphan­age busi­nesses have been set up. These sep­ar­ate fam­il­ies with prom­ises that chil­dren will be offered a qual­ity edu­ca­tion, but they are instead placed in facil­it­ies with a revolving door of unqual­i­fied and unchecked tour­ists, some of whom have mali­cious intent. 

These travel & tour­ism trends, and oth­ers, place chil­dren at risk of sexu­al exploitation. 

In response to the wide­spread and con­stantly evolving crime of the sexu­al exploit­a­tion of chil­dren, civil soci­ety organ­isa­tions are team­ing up. A multi-faceted crime requires a multi-stake­hold­er response, and this blog has been writ­ten to illus­trate some of the ways in which child pro­tec­tion net­works edu­cate, design policy, and advoc­ate for real change. The three examples included here demon­strate impact on the loc­al level, glob­al level, and across the private sector.

The Local Level: Community-based child protection networks

Child pro­tec­tion meas­ures should not always come from above. Two loc­al child pro­tec­tion net­works — in Phuket, Thai­l­and and Cancun, Mex­ico — are excel­lent examples of this. These pro­jects, fun­ded by TUI Care Found­a­tion and the Dutch Min­istry of For­eign Affairs, demon­strate the power of edu­cat­ing and empower­ing chil­dren; run­ning ses­sions to teach vul­ner­able chil­dren about risks, their own rights, as well as giv­ing them skills, access to schools, sport and recreation. 

The 12 mem­bers of the Phuket net­work recently came togeth­er in an event at Jun­gceylon Mall (Septem­ber 7 – 8, 2019) to raise aware­ness of child pro­tec­tion in travel & tour­ism to tour­ists and to share best prac­tice between each oth­er. The exhib­i­tion fea­tured 12 booths, each hos­ted by a rep­res­ent­at­ive from a mem­ber of the loc­al child pro­tec­tion net­work. ECPAT Found­a­tion and The Code of Con­duct for the Pre­ven­tion of the Sexu­al Exploit­a­tion of Chil­dren (“The Code”) provided over­views of glob­al meas­ures. The Code had fly­ers with the Thai nation­al emer­gency hot­line (1300) for child pro­tec­tion and cards out­lining the rights of chil­dren them­selves. For Free­dom Inter­na­tion­al show­cased the skills taught to re-empower vic­tims of child sexu­al exploit­a­tion in the form of hair braid­ing and deli­cious cakes. Right to Play and SOS Children’s Vil­lage illus­trated their use of sport and edu­ca­tion for mar­gin­al­ised migrant chil­dren, with Good Shep­herd Phuket provid­ing inform­a­tion on how they pro­tect and sup­port chil­dren in the region.

The net­works have also inspired col­lab­or­a­tion bey­ond civil soci­ety organ­isa­tions. The Jun­gceylon Mall exhib­i­tion was atten­ded by seni­or law enforce­ment offi­cials and the advisor to the May­or of the Dis­trict. Open­ing speeches called for col­lect­ive action and speak­ing up against the sexu­al exploit­a­tion of chil­dren in travel & tour­ism. This is the multi-stake­hold­er team­work needed to make a real dif­fer­ence to children’s lives; the kind of team­work often demon­strated by the ECPAT Inter­na­tion­al network.

The Global Level: ECPAT International 

ECPAT Inter­na­tion­al is a glob­al net­work of 111 civil soci­ety organ­isa­tions across 97 coun­tries with one goal: elim­in­at­ing the sexu­al exploit­a­tion of chil­dren. ECPAT has mul­tiple pro­grammes aimed at tack­ling all forms of sexu­al exploit­a­tion of chil­dren; includ­ing online child sexu­al exploit­a­tion, traf­fick­ing for sexu­al pur­poses, and the sexu­al exploit­a­tion of chil­dren in travel & tour­ism (SECTT).

If you want to know what a glob­al net­work of organ­isa­tions striv­ing to end SECTT can achieve, look no fur­ther than “The Glob­al Study”. The Glob­al Study on Sexu­al Exploit­a­tion of Chil­dren in Travel and Tour­ism was the first ever con­sol­id­ated effort to under­stand the glob­al nature and scope of this crime. The Glob­al Study on SECTT brought this gross viol­a­tion of children’s rights into the light and set out recom­mend­a­tions that provide a “roadmap” to pro­tect chil­dren. The imple­ment­a­tion of these recom­mend­a­tions con­trib­utes to the achieve­ment of Sus­tain­able Devel­op­ment Goals tar­gets 8.9 and 12b, which call for sus­tain­able tour­ism devel­op­ment, and tar­gets 5.2, 8.7, and 16.2, which aim to end child sexu­al exploitation.

Fur­ther alli­ances have been formed which con­tin­ue to research, mon­it­or and advoc­ate for child pro­tec­tion meas­ures. The Down to Zero Alli­ance com­bines the insights and expert­ise of civil soci­ety organ­isa­tions (CSOs) from 11 coun­tries with the aim of elim­in­at­ing the exploit­a­tion of chil­dren, per­man­ently. They have also pro­duced import­ant guidelines for multi­sect­or col­lab­or­a­tion, not­ably on how CSOs and private sec­tor com­pan­ies can work togeth­er to elim­in­ate the sexu­al exploit­a­tion of chil­dren. The private sec­tor has a cru­cial role to play and has an amp­li­fied impact when com­pan­ies work with the pub­lic sec­tor and with each oth­er, such as in mem­ber­ship organ­isa­tions like The Code. 

The Private Sector: The Code

The Code of Con­duct for the Pre­ven­tion of the Sexu­al Exploit­a­tion of Chil­dren (“The Code”) has been part­ner­ing with travel & tour­ism com­pan­ies across the world to ensure a zero-tol­er­ance policy towards the sexu­al exploit­a­tion of chil­dren. Thanks to The Code, over 960,000 staff mem­bers in the travel & tour­ism industry have been trained to effect­ively detect and report any instances of human traf­fick­ing and child exploit­a­tion they encounter. By becom­ing mem­bers of The Code, com­pan­ies take on an act­ive com­mit­ment to imple­ment the six criteria: 

1) Estab­lish a policy and pro­ced­ures against the sexu­al exploit­a­tion of children

2) Train employ­ees in chil­dren’s rights, the pre­ven­tion of sexu­al exploit­a­tion of chil­dren, and how to report sus­pec­ted cases

3) Include a clause in con­tracts through the value chain stat­ing a com­mon repu­di­ation of, and zero-tol­er­ance policy towards the sexu­al exploit­a­tion of children

4) Provide inform­a­tion to trav­el­lers about chil­dren’s rights, the pre­ven­tion of sexu­al exploit­a­tion of chil­dren, and how to report sus­pec­ted cases 

5) Sup­port, col­lab­or­ate with, and engage stake­hold­ers in the pre­ven­tion of sexu­al exploit­a­tion of children

6) Report annu­ally on the imple­ment­a­tion of the criteria

The Code’s six criteria

These require­ments of The Code ensure that the pre­ven­tion of SECTT becomes a multi-stake­hold­er com­mit­ment. Code mem­bers must inform their trav­el­lers of their policy and response pro­ced­ures if they sus­pect a case of child sexu­al exploit­a­tion. The Code’s e‑learning mod­ules help train staff through­out each mem­ber organ­isa­tion, from top man­age­ment to back-of-house. A clear zero-tol­er­ance policy must be stated in sup­pli­er clauses which extends the child pro­tec­tion com­mit­ment bey­ond the mem­ber com­pany or prop­erty. And the fifth cri­ter­ia expli­citly requires and assesses engage­ment with loc­al act­ors and stake­hold­ers. In this way, The Code cre­ates a net­work of con­scious, respons­ible travel & tour­ism pro­fes­sion­als and brands. 

Child protection networks at all levels are making a difference! 

• At the loc­al level, the Jun­gceylon Mall Exhib­i­tion in Phuket, Thai­l­and is an example of how child pro­tec­tion in travel & tour­ism is mov­ing bey­ond civil soci­ety organ­isa­tions and is demon­strat­ing ever-increas­ing inter-sec­tor­al collaboration. 
• At the glob­al level, UNWTO’s recent trans­form­a­tion of its glob­al code of eth­ics into an inter­na­tion­al con­ven­tion was a prime recom­mend­a­tion of ECPAT Inter­na­tion­al’s Glob­al Study, and an extremely prom­ising step for­ward to pro­tect chil­dren from SECTT. 
• Among private sec­tor net­works, staff who have been trained by The Code fre­quently report feel­ing more aware and more empowered to deal with poten­tial cases of SECTT they encounter. 

You too can make a difference

Remem­ber, if you see any sus­pi­cious beha­viour or sus­pect that a child may be at risk, then report it. Famil­i­ar­ise your­self with your country’s hot­line, refer to The Child Helpline’s Data­base, or report your sus­pi­cions straight to the police if a child is in imme­di­ate danger. 

Fea­tured image: Child plays with “happy hol­i­day” toy jumbo. By Anke Sun­der­mei­er via Pixabay.

About the author

Jod­ie Spen­cer is work­ing towards end­ing the sexu­al exploit­a­tion of chil­dren in travel & tour­ism (SECTT) at ECPAT Inter­na­tion­al. An avid trav­el­ler, Jod­ie also has exper­i­ence volun­teer­ing with Plan Inter­na­tion­al and teaching.

Download

• Offend­ers on the Move: Glob­al Study on Sexu­al Exploit­a­tion of Chil­dren in Travel & Tour­ism 2016 (PDF 2 MB)