Worldwide Hotel Chain Implements Human Rights Policy to Stop Sex Trafficking at their Facilities
The exploitation of children is an outrage against Catholic morals. Each year, more than two million children are exploited in the global commercial sex trade, some of them as young as five years old. Child sex tourism (CST) is an organized, multi-million dollar industry that includes tour guides, websites and brothels, which are often run out of hotels.
To combat this horrific exploitation, we contacted the Wyndham Hotel Group, one of the largest hotel chains in the world.
At the time, the company had no human rights policies dealing with child sex trafficking. Our efforts led management to realize that they were exposed to this problem at the company’s many locations throughout the world.
Catholic Advocacy Changes Corporate Policy Around the World, with Immediate Results in the US
Wyndham quickly agreed to draft a Human Rights Policy and add specific provisions regarding the sexual exploitation of children. Wyndham now trains their employees to spot and avoid human trafficking, and coordinates well with the Police and FBI in their efforts to eliminate this practice.
Our success with Wyndham Hotel Group led to persuading two other national chains, Starwood Hotels and Choice Hotels, to implement similar strategies curbing the trafficking of children.
Here in the United States, our efforts were rewarded with the arrests of numerous sex traffickers and the rescue of 42 trafficked children during a Super Bowl. Today, over 1,200 hotels participate in prevention efforts including Wyndham, Marriott, Choice Hotels, Best Western, Starwood and Hyatt.
Catholic Impact Investing: Proven Results Improving the World
The USCCB Guidelines are very clear: Catholic investors need to practice both Socially Responsible Investing to limit evil and Impact Investing to promote good. There are other Catholic financial advisors who apply screens in accord with the USCCB Guidelines. What they almost universally leave out is the Impact Investing that Summit provides. By donating a percentage of our advisor fees to impact investing, we are able to provide an investment portfolio that truly meets the USCCB’s Guidelines.
Join the fight against sex trafficking by investing with Summit.
Doing good can have financial rewards, too. By choosing to invest with Summit, your money will be invested in accord with your Catholic values. The financial services we offer our clients are tailored to meet their unique needs without violating their moral beliefs. You, too, can have a custom investment portfolio in line with the USCCB Investment Guidelines and help end sex trafficking and other moral evils.