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USF Applauds Hyatt Hotels for joining “The Code”

by Mark Engman, Director of Public Policy and Advocacy

On Human Rights Day, December 10, Hyatt Hotels announced that it joined the Code of Conduct for the Protection of Children from Sexual Exploitation in Travel and Tourism.

codeSexual exploitation of children in travel and tourism is a serious problem, with profound negative impacts on a child's physical, emotional, mental, spiritual, moral, and social development.  Preventing this crime requires partners from both the public and private sectors.  The Code is a joint venture of ECPAT International and the tourism sector to commit combat child sexual exploitation.  UNICEF serves as an advisory partner for The Code.

Suppliers of tourism services adopting the code commit themselves to implement six criteria to help fight commercial sexual exploitation of children, and raise awareness about the crime.

Hyatt’s action reflects its ongoing corporate commitment to fight human trafficking and exploitation.  Hyatt already partners with Polaris on a mandatory global human trafficking training program for its hotel staff.  Hyatt also took action across all its U.S. hotels to block Internet access to several websites used for human trafficking.

The U.S. Fund for UNICEF is a proud partner with Polaris and other organizations to end trafficking.  We welcome Hyatt’s decision to sign The Code, and we know it will make a global difference to help stop child exploitation and make the world a better place for children.