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Philippines, Indonesia, Colombia, South Africa and many other locations.
Similarly, the practice also occurs in the US, Holland and a few other coun-
tries. Slums are characterised by high poverty and in some cases high crime
rates. Several tour agencies and NGOs have been conducting tourists around
poorer areas or slums. In some cases money is raised to help residents, while
critics argue the practice of slum tourism amounts to human exploitation
(McGuinness, 2012). Exploitation is likely to occur where there are no prop-
erly instituted accountability mechanisms to monitor tour agencies and
NGOs in terms of delivering their promises to the poor residents after raising
money from tourists who patronise slum tours.
Slum tourism also raises many human rights concerns, particularly with
regard to the violation of personal privacy. More often than not, residents in
slums are the least consulted before tours are organised. Such practices
amount to violation of personal privacy. Article 12 of the UNUDHR (1948)
and Article 17 of the ICCPR (1966) disapprove on such practices.
Discussion and Conclusion
As seen in other chapters in this topic, tourism development is multifac-
eted and multi-dimensional. As a consequence, human rights issues in tour-
ism are also intertwined with other issues and concerns. Any form of tourism
development taking place in regions where urgent socio-economic develop-
ment is needed, social, economic and environmental exploitation, as well as
human rights violations can occur as a result. The impingement of human
rights is not only a challenge for host populations and societies, but also for
tourists and tourism businesses, including MNCs. Salient examples include:
• The safety and security of tourists while on holiday, the safety and secu-
rity to conduct tourism business and the safety and security of host
populations working in tourism businesses or acting as a host society
must be protected.
• Access to natural resources must be available to host populations.
Tourists, on the other hand, must not be denied access to the natural
resources in the destination. Both local businesses and MNCs must be
able to access necessary natural resources.
•
Tourism development must not relocate the local residents without con-
sent and/or appropriate compensation. Local populations must be
allowed freedom of movement both in and outside of their country.
Tourists must be allowed freedom of movement in the destination coun-
tries; however, to secure this freedom of movement, the state must guar-
antee a safe and secure society.
•
The privacy of local populations must be protected (e.g. tourists must
respect the local population's private life). The privacy of tourists must
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