A forthcoming study by the German Federal Institute for International Cooperation (GIZ) will cite more than 140 cases of human rights violations in tourism and argue there is sufficient evidence to prosecute in more than 100.
One of the authors, Dr Christian Baumgartner, told a human rights seminar at German trade show ITB in Berlin in March that governments and international tourism businesses are guilty of violations under international law.
Baumgartner said: “We cite 145 cases of violation of human rights and 106 with sufficient evidence to prosecute.”
He said the report would cite 45 violations by international tourism businesses, but added: “Often governments and government structures are involved in violations. Existing human rights instruments are not effective.”
Baumgartner argued: “Reducing human rights violations should not be presented as best practice but should be a matter of course.”
He said: “A significant number of cases involve indigenous peoples and hotel developments, especially in Sri Lanka and Thailand.”
German MP and member of the German parliamentary committee on human rights Tom Koenigs said: “The industry should ask questions because when a big hotel is built, some win and some lose.
“We provide a good service to people of our country who travel. We should apply the standards we develop to other countries.”
The GIZ study is due to be published in the autumn.
Another seminar at ITB heard Kuoni Travel head of corporate responsibility Matthias Leisinger suggest online travel agents (OTAs) and emerging source markets should take more responsibility for human rights alongside tour operators.
Leisinger said: “It’s fair to put the big tour operators in the spotlight, but we need to acknowledge tourism is changing. There are big OTAs and new source markets – China, India, Russia – and this is changing the landscape.”
Nikki White, head of destinations and sustainability at UK travel association Abta, said tour operators frequently don’t talk about what they are doing because of the attention it attracts. She said: “It’s difficult sometimes to raise issues because as soon as you say you are doing something there is more scrutiny.”
White added: “Abta is just starting out on human rights, but our members sell 14 million package holidays a year and lots of other holidays. We want thriving destinations and customers want to be confident their travel organiser is doing things ethically. How can we say we deliver a quality product if we do not consider human rights?”