Our Commitment

The Commitment of Human Rights in Tourism is the heart of the Roundtable – it represents the core values of the initiative:

In our activities in the tourism industry, especially as tour operators, we work on a daily basis for and with people: customers, employees including subcontractors, and the local population at destinations. These people are the basis for our business success and the quality of the services we provide. We respect their human dignity and rights.

We acknowledge the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and its legal binding implementation instruments as the basis for our business activities, in particular:

  • the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights
  • the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, as well as
  • the Labour Standards of the International Labour Organisation (ILO).

Tourism affects many aspects of human rights, such as the right to information and participation in decision-making processes, to protection against discrimination, to housing, food, water, health and education, to work with dignity, to join trade unions, to protection against forced labour and to privacy. Moreover, the human rights of potentially high-risk groups must be protected, especially migrant workers, children, women, indigenous people and people with disabilities.

We welcome the Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGPs) of the United Nations Human Rights Council. On their basis, we commit to our human rights responsibility and due diligence in tourism:

  • We have a human rights-based corporate policy.
  • Within the scope of our corporate possibilities, we carefully check the impact of our business activities on human rights.
  • We integrate human rights policy into our corporate culture, into the business management and into our cooperation with subcontractors.
  • We implement an appropriate grievance mechanism and strive to provide remedy in case of human rights abuse.
  • We frequently review the progress of our measures and report publicly.

We pursue the aim to constantly improve the human rights situation at the destinations where we are active. In dialogue with our employees and external stakeholders, we consistently conduct - within the scope of our influence - the implementation of human rights due diligence and agreed goals for continuous improvement.

Membership in the Roundtable is open to all tourism businesses, travel associations, NGOs and industry participants (certifiers, institutions, multipliers etc.) that commit themselves to these principles of the Roundtable, and sign the Commitment and declaration for their stakeholder group.