End Child Prostitution

SAVE A CHILD FROM PROSTITUTION— CHOOSE HOTELS THAT SIGN THE CODE
By Janet Clark
While slavery might strike most people as just an archaic relic from our less-than-stellar past, rotting on the scrapheap of history where it belongs, unfortunately that isn’t true. Recently ABC News aired a series detailing the reality of modern-day slavery, and in May of this year, speakers at the Iowa Preventing Abuse Conference spoke about the most tragic victims of this scourge, child prostitutes. While children in the United States are all too often victimized in this manner, the problem is even more widespread in other countries, especially those with high rates of poverty. Children in those countries are forced into prostitution either through physical violence or because they have no other means of making enough money to feed themselves. The non-profit organization End Child Prostitution, Child Pornography, and the Trafficking of Children (ECPAT) estimates that more than one million children worldwide are drawn into the sex trade each year. Each year! According to a report from the U.S. Department of Justice, Asia, Mexico and Central America are “prime destinations” for child-sex tourists. What’s worse, it’s estimated that 25% of these “tourists” come from the United States.
While this may seem like a problem both too horrible to contemplate and too huge to effect, there is a way for any concerned citizen to help end child prostitution. The child sex tourism industry is enabled by people in the legitimate tourism industry who turn a blind eye and a deaf ear to what is happening right in front of them, or in some cases actively assist the abusers of these children in order to receive paybacks. But the good news is that a significant sector of the tourist trade has decided to act on behalf of the children who have no power to liberate themselves. More than 500 companies around the world have signed the Code of Conduct for the Protection of the Children from Sexual Exploitation in Travel and Tourism. According to ECPAT, companies that sign the Code commit to implement the following six criteria:
• To establish an ethical policy regarding commercial sexual exploitation of children.
• To train the personnel in the country of origin and travel destinations.
• To introduce a clause in contracts with suppliers, stating a common repudiation of commercial sexual exploitation of children.
• To provide information to travelers by means of catalogues, brochures, in-flight films, ticket-slips, home pages, etc.
• To provide information to local “key persons” at the destinations.
• To report annually on the implementation of the previous five criteria.
The American Society of Travel Agents, with more than 20,000 members, has signed the Code of Conduct. So has one large American travel company, Carlson Companies, which includes Country Inn and Suites, Regent International, Cruise Holidays, Radisson Hotels, and Park Plaza. Several smaller American travel companies, Royal Regency International, Ela Brasil Tours, and Flamingo Travel, have also signed the Code of Conduct.
The conspicuous list is the one with the names of all the American companies who have not signed the Code. On that list, you’ll find Choice Hotels, whose holdings include Clarion Quality, Comfort Suites and Comfort Inns, Sleep Inn, and Suburban; Hyatt Hotels, parent company of AmeriSuites and Hawthorn Suites; Starwood Hotels, which includes Starwood, Four Points, Sheraton, St. Regis and Westin; and Hilton Hotels. Why are these companies dragging their feet when it comes to protecting children?
“Many European companies have demonstrated their commitment to practice a socially responsible, child-wise tourism by signing on to the Code of Conduct. However, there has yet to be significant commitment from U.S. companies,” according to ECPAT. If we work together, we can change that.
Are you planning a summer vacation? Reward the hotels that have signed the Code, and let the other hotel chains know why you are choosing their competition. Does your civic or religious organization hold meetings in hotels? Encourage them to only deal with companies that sign the Code. Especially for organizations that deal with children, such as teachers, school boards, and social workers, it’s important to give your business to those companies that protect children around the globe and withhold it from companies that refuse to be a part of the solution.
Pressuring companies to sign the Code of Conduct may seem like a small thing to do, but when all legitimate businesses in the travel industry live by the Code, we will be one step closer to ending child prostitution. Slavery in all its ugliness should not exist in our world today. Let’s get it out of the headlines and into the history books.

Previously published in the Des Moines Register