|
Corporate Social Responsibility
News
12.06.2006 - 09:30am ET
|
CSR News from:
|
|
|
News Category:
|
|
Shareholders Applaud Marriott International for Adopting Policy to Address the Exploitation of Children
(CSRwire) Dember 6, 2006--In November, Marriott International's Board of Directors
approved a change in its Human Rights policy to specifically include a
section on the Protection of Children. "We commend Marriott for following
through on their pledge to develop a policy to address the issue of sexual
exploitation of children as part of our agreement to withdraw the
shareholder resolution that we filed on behalf of our clients at the end
of 2005", said Carina Silberg, Research Analyst of GES Investment Services
of Sweden.
"We believe that Marriott has demonstrated a sincere commitment to
addressing the issue of sexual exploitation of children from a risk
management and corporate responsibility perspective" said Lauren Compere,
Director of Shareholder Advocacy at Boston Common Asset Management. "We
hope that other hotel chains and other companies involved in the tourism
industry will take up this issue with the same leadership that Marriott
has."
Lauren Compere and Carina Silberg co-led an intensive dialogue with
Marriott International to adopt policies and procedures to address the
sexual exploitation of children in the hotel industry. The initiative was
prompted by Swedish Första AP-fonden, part of the Swedish National
Pension System, and other shareholders playing a key part in the
discussions with Marriott include DnB NOR of Norway and the Sisters of St.
Joseph of Boston. Over the last nine months, the shareholder group has met
three times with members of Marriott's Human Rights Task Force comprised
of senior officials in the organization across the areas of human
resources, compliance, public affairs and international lodging
operations. The Task Force was specifically formed to address this issue
throughout Marriott's global operations.
"As shareholders we are concerned about the risks of companies in the
tourism and travel industry being associated with or used as a mean in
Child Sex Tourism (CST). These risks and the central role of travel
professionals in preventing such risks have been recognized by several
important organizations and we believe addressing these matters is
material to companies in the industry." stated William af Sandeberg, CEO
and President of Första AP-fonden.
Marriottt has already begun employee awareness and training on this new
policy at all levels of the organization from the most senior level down
to the front line personnel through a variety of communications. Marriott
is also taking a leadership role in the International Business Leaders
Forum that is working on an industry-wide initiative to prevent child sex
tourism. Marriott started including in all pre-arrival email messages (20
million are sent by Marriott each year to registered guests), the
Responsible Tourist and Traveller brochure developed by the United Nations
World Tourism Organization which includes a message about not engaging in
child sex tourism since it is a crime. Additionally, Marriott has
encouraged all their sites to look for specific partnerships to address
this issue within the communities that they are working, including youth
outreach programs.
"As faith-based investors, who are also involved on the ground in
prevention efforts and in the after care of children who have been abused
in many of these countries, we believe that the tourism industry can play
a critical role in preventing this egregious human rights violation"
stated Rev. David Schilling, director, Global Corporate Accountability
Program, Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility (ICCR) in New York
City. "This is such a critical issue for ICCR members that we will be
expanding our efforts to engage other hotel chains, travel agencies and
airlines over the next few years."
The shareholder group will continue to encourage Marriott to expand their
efforts in this area and monitor the implementation of their policy. The
group believes Marriott has taken a huge step in adopting appropriate
policies and procedures to address the exploitation of children within
their sphere of influence.
Attached is a copy of the updated human rights policy and a summary report
on Marriott's work on this issue. (http://ir.shareholder.com/mar/downloads/HumanRights.pdf)
For more information about this initiative, please contact Lauren Compere
at Boston Common Asset Management at (617) 720-5557 or lcompere@bostoncommonasset.com
or Carina Silberg, GES Investment Management Services at +46 (8) 787 9910
or carina.silberg@ges-invest.com.
Why are shareholders concerned over this issue;
Each year more than two million children are exploited in the global
commercial sex trade, some of them as young as five years old, with the
average age of 14. Child sex tourism (CST) is the practice of foreigners
sexually exploiting children in another country. It is an organized
multi-million dollar industry (includes tour guides, websites and brothel
maps). Problem countries include Cambodia, Thailand, Costa Rica, Mexico,
Dominican Republic, Brazil, India and others. At least 32 countries have
extraterritorial laws that allow the prosecution of their citizens for CST
crimes committed abroad including the U.S. The risk of being used as a mean
by CST perpetrators, but also the central role of travel professionals in
preventing such risks have been recognized by several important
organizations including the International Labor Organization (ILO), the
International Hotel & Restaurant Association (IH&RA) and the Office to
Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons under the US Department of
State. All these institutions have issued reports or statements suggesting
that tourism areas may be a source for aggravated demand for child
prostitution.
About Första AP- fonden
Första AP-fonden, AP1, the First Swedish National Pension Fund, is one of
five buffer funds in the reformed pension system whose mission is to ensure
future retirement pensions. At mid-year 2006 Första AP-fonden had assets
of SEK 188.2 billion (USD 27 billion) under management. www.ap1.se
About Boston Common Asset Management
Boston Common Asset Management is a full-service, employee-owned U.S.
social investment firm dedicated to the pursuit of financial return and
social change. www.bostoncommonasset.com
About GES Investment Services
GES Investment Services is Northern Europe's leading research and service
provider for Responsible Investments based on international guidelines on
Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) issues. www.ges-invest.com
About the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility
The Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility (ICCR) is a faith-based
member organization with over 275 institutional investors with a combined
portfolio value of about US$ 110 billion. www.iccr.org
|
Independent Research Reports
To search for independent research reports from Innovest Startegic Value Advisors about the social, environmental and governance performance of this company and its industry, click here |
 |
|
|
|
|
