About 2 million children worldwide are under 18 and enslaved in the sex trade. Child sex tourism is big business. There are now more and more companies signing a code of conduct for the protection of children from sexual exploitation in travel and tourism. This code has 6 criteria’s below.
THE SIX CRITERIASuppliers of tourism services adopting the code commit themselves to implement the following six criteria:
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1.
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To establish an ethical policy regarding commercial sexual exploitation of children.
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2.
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To train the personnel in the country of origin and travel destinations.
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3.
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To introduce a clause in contracts with suppliers, stating a common repudiation of commercial sexual exploitation of children.
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To provide information to travellers by means of catalogues, brochures, in-flight films, ticket-slips, home pages, etc.
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5.
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To provide information to local “key persons” at the destinations.
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6.
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To report annually.
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Visit http://www.thecode.org to learn more. Hotel chains like Carlson (owner of Radisson) and Accor (owner of Sofitel, Novitel, Motel 6 etc), European airlines like Air France, and travel agencies all over the world have signed on to the 6 point plan to fight child prostitution.
I know it’s hard sometimes, but especially if you are going to a country or city particularly notorious for child prostitution (e.g. Thailand, Cambodia, Moldova), please support companies who are a member of this code. You’ll find a list of companies at http://www.thecode.org.
This is such a step forward in recognizing this issue and it’s good to see certain companies band together to fight this instead of doing what the majority of companies do: ignore it.
