Tourism Concern’s efforts recognised by UN Special Representative on Business and Human Rights

"Tourism Concern’s efforts at engaging the international tourism industry on human rights have been recognised by the UN Special Representative for business and human rights.

The Special Representative has added Tourism Concern and our Putting Tourism to Rights report to its list of instances of practical applications of the new UN Framework on Business and Human Rights.

Download the latest list here
http://www.business-humanrights.org/media/documents/ruggie/applications-...

Our Putting Tourism to Rights campaign is calling for the international tourism industry and UK Government to recognise and redress the negative human rights impacts of tourism development. Human rights violations commonly associated with tourism include forced displacement, loss of access to vital natural resources, such as water, loss of livelihoods and poor working conditions.

Over the last 12 months, Tourism Concern has engaged in a number of industry-level dialogues promoting the UN Framework and other key international human rights standards, such as the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. We also travelled to Madrid to meet with the UN World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO) to push for greater attention on human rights issues in their approach to tourism development and increased civil society participation in UNWTO processes. All these dialogues are ongoing and a number of positive steps forward have been identified.

The UN “Protect, Respect and Remedy” Framework clearly establishes the business responsibility to respect human rights, which means ensuring that business activities do not infringe upon the rights of others, whether directly or through supply chains. This ‘pillar’ is complemented by the State responsibility to protect the human rights of its citizens, including guarding against violations committed by third parties, such as transnational business activities. Under the third pillar, both states and businesses are required to provide access to remedy for victims of human rights violations by business activities."

For more information go to www.tourismconcern.org.uk