Choice Hotels Refuses 5 Out of 6 Ways to Prevent Child Prostitution

Last week, Change.org community members began asking Choice Hotels to proactively respond to the tragedy of five-year-old Shaniya Davis's sale for commercial sex at one of their hotels, a Comfort Inn in North Carolina. As of today, over 2000 of you have sent letters to Choice Hotels pushing them to sign the ECPAT Code of Conduct -- six easy steps a company can take to prevent child prostitution at their properties. David Peikin, Senior Director, Corporate Communications for Choice Hotels, responded to Change.org community members' concerns to tell us that Choice Hotels thinks they do enough to protect children from sexual predators. But Choice Hotels refused to implement 5 out of the 6 recommended actions, and has ignored Change.org's request that the company contact leading child protection organization ECPAT to arrange a better corporate policy. Please, ask Choice Hotels to prevent child prostitution on their properties.

The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children estimates that up to 100,000 American kids are at risk for commercial sexual exploitation each year. These children are sold on the streets, at truck stops, and at American hotels and motels for sex. Victims as young as 12 have been found living in hotel rooms for weeks at a time, forced to have sex with a dozen men a night or more. Travel and tourism industry companies and personnel have a unique opportunity to prevent child sex trafficking in hotels and reduce the number of places where pimps and pedophiles can exploit children.

However, Choice Hotels has indicated they believe that their corporate human rights policy, which can be read here, is sufficient to protect children. The policy states that Choice Hotels "condemns" the exploitation of children. OK, good start. But we all condemn the exploitation of children, Choice Hotels -- the question is, what are you going to do about it? If you really condemn the horrific sale and rape of children at Choice Hotels properties, why does your human rights statement have only vague, noncommittal promises, like to "raise awareness concerning such exploitation" and "cooperate with law enforcement authorities to address any such instances of exploitation?" Cooperating with law enforcement is the bare minimum that any company should do, and refusing to do so might be illegally obstructing justice in an investigation. Choice Hotels, you have an opportunity to use your position and power to protect children from exploitation. And you have 2000 supporters asking you to use it. 

After the brutal rape and murder of five-year-old Shaniya Davis last month, part of which took place at a Choice Hotels Comfort Inn in North Carolina, ECPAT and Change.org community members have asked Choice Hotels to agree to follow a voluntary Code of Conduct. Over 900 travel and tourism countries around the world have already signed on to this code. The code states that a company will:

1. Establish an ethical policy regarding commercial sexual exploitation of children
2. Train the personnel in the country of origin and travel destinations.
3. Introduce a clause in contracts with suppliers, stating the common repudiation of commercial sexual exploitation of children.
4. Provide information to travelers by means of catalogues, brochures, in-flight films, ticketslips, web-sites, etc.
5. Provide information to local ''key persons'' at the destinations.
6. Report annually.

Choice Hotels has pointed out that they currently do 1 of these 6 things -- they have an ethical policy regarding the exploitation of children. But the other five steps, the ones which would allow Choice Hotels to demonstrate that they condemn the sexual exploitation of children by actually doing something concrete to prevent it, they refuse to take.

You can tell Choice Hotels that 1 out of 6 just isn't good enough. It wasn't good enough for Shaniya Davis, whose childhood was stolen from her at a Choice Hotels property. And its not good enough for the thousands of American children at risk for sex trafficking this year. Take a minute to tell Choice Hotels to sign the Code of Conduct. And maybe when the next Shaniya Davis is brought to their door to be sold into prostitution, Choice Hotels will say loud and clear, "If you're going to exploit children, there's no room at this Inn."

We'll keep you updated on Choice Hotels' response to your requests for action.

Photo credit: apdk