Put tourism to rights

TEN calls for a human rights approach in tourism and end to dispossession and sexual exploitation.

Several members of the European group, known as TEN are lobbying to address human rights issues and UNWTO to fulfil its responsibilities as a UN agency by opening up to civil society participation.

Says TEN:  “Developing countries in particular, many of which are indebted and faced with high unemployment, promote tourism as a panacea, and thus offer cheap labour and pristine landscapes.”

“More than 60 years after the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, it is high time to acknowledge that human rights must be a fundamental basis of sustainable tourism development.”

“While generating income, tourism often undermines the rights of people in the tourist destinations.

This includes the fundamental rights of those who hardly participate in tourism and receive no benefits from it, but whose lives are affected by its impacts.”

“In the name of tourism, people are discriminated against, their freedom of expression is curtailed and their participation in decision-making processes is obstructed. The families of farmers and fishermen are dispossessed, indigenous communities are displaced and children sexually exploited. Last but not least, global tourism accelerates climate change, thus globalising its impact on human rights.”

“Climate change also affects people in parts of the world where hardly any tourism happens.”

“Several declarations and conventions have been developed under the United Nations. Many of them are of direct relevance to the tourism sector, e.g. the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, the core labour standards of the International Labour Organization (ILO), the Convention on Biological Diversity, and others.

“Even though tourism business representatives and the UN World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) would like to see it differently, there is no “right to tourism„ to be derived from the human rights to leisure and freedom of movement.”

“Leisure does not by default imply travel and tourism, and the right to freedom of movement does not encompass the right to enter another country. At the same time, tourism development and the current forms of tourism often endanger and violate human rights.”
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“Claiming a “right to tourism level as fundamental human rights is in stark contra- diction to a credible human rights approach.”

“According to international law, it is the obligation of states to respect, protect and fulfil the rights and freedoms to which all humans are entitled. This also applies in the context of tourism.”

TEN is comprised of campaigning groups, development agencies and other organisations seeking to promote fairly traded forms of tourism that respects and upholds human rights. It was formed as a solidarity network to the Thailand-based Ecumenical Coalition on Tourism (ECOT) in support of communities in the global South who fall victim to the harmful impacts of tourism development.

TEN members aim to:

• Raise consciousness and awareness of the effects of tourism on people in the receiving countries of the global South.
• Support behaviour and attitudes which avoid "touristic consumption" of other peoples, countries and cultures, and which help to create equal relations among peoples of different countries.
• Encourage practices, means and activities which increase the positive aspects of tourism and challenge its negative aspects. This means measuring tourism according to its contribution to building just, participatory and sustainable societies.
• Seek out cooperation with the tourism industry and with partners at all levels within the receiving countries.

Current TEN members are: akte – Arbeitskreis für Tourismus und Entwicklung (Switzerland); Karavaan (Belgium); Informatie VerreReizen (Netherlands); Naturfreunde Internationale / Respect (Austria); Schyst Resande (Sweden); Studienkreis für Tourismus und Entwicklung (Germany); Stichting Retour Foundation (Netherlands); Tourism Concern (UK); Tourism Watch/EED (Germany)

Valere Tjolle
Valere is editor of the Sustainable Tourism Report Suite 2011, special offers HERE