Locating child rights within the emerging CSR narrative in travel and tourism: reflections from a Vietnam pilot study

This paper addresses human rights, specifically those affecting children, and how travel and tourism as a sector impacts on these. The paper reflects on findings of a pilot assessment undertaken in Vietnam under the auspices of UNICEF and builds a narrative around UNICEF’s Business Principles and the ways in which international travel and tourism companies can mitigate their impact on human rights across key domain areas of sexual exploitation and human trafficking, child labour, the wider working environment within travel and tourism and the impact of large scale tourism development on land and community rights. The pilot assessment was based on in-depth engagement with stakeholders across the public and private sectors in Vietnam and, in particular, focused on the value chains of four Europe-based sponsoring travel and tourism companies. Tentative conclusions and recommendations are addressed within the presentation.