Thanks to the efforts of Sr. Valerie Heinonen, osu, director of shareholder advocacy and ECPAT-USA, Delta Airlines has become the first domestic airline and the third U.S. organization to sign the Code, which focuses on the protection of children from sexual exploitation in the travel and tourism industries.

 ECPAT had been working with Northwest Airlines – prior to its merger with Delta – on its willingness to sign the Code. In 2009 and 2010, Sister Valerie, with an ECPAT representative, attended Delta’s annual meeting and asked whether Delta would sign the Code. In 2010, Mercy Investment Services filed a resolution asking Delta Airlines to address the issue of child sex tourism and sign the Code. As a result of positive discussions, Mercy withdrew the resolution and ECPAT approved Delta’s application making it the first domestic airline, second only to Air France, to adopt the Code. While hundreds of travel industry members worldwide have signed the Code, only three U.S. organizations have.

By signing the Code, Delta has agreed to implement policies that condemn child trafficking and train employees to identify and report trafficking activities. Delta also plans to include information about ECPAT and the Code on its website and in its Sky magazine.

Click here to read the full press release about the signing.

In November, the annual cotton harvest ended in Uzbekistan, which produces one-third of the world's cotton and receives approximately $1 billion per year from cotton exports. However, the country's cotton harvest has attracted international scrutiny in recent years, following confirmation by the U.S. Department of State, United Nations organizations and various media of widespread use of forced child labor. Children as young as 10 years old are forced to work the two-month harvest. In 2010, Uzbekistan's administration of educational institutions, as ordered by the local mayors' offices, sent schoolchildren to the fields from September 10 until November 10.

F&C Management, one of Mercy Investment Services' investment managers, has joined major European clothing brands such as Next, H&M and Adidas, retailers including Carrefour, industry working groups and campaigners, to find an industry-wide solution to this problem. Recognizing the difficulties in tracing the origin of a highly commoditized product like cotton, F&C recommended that companies work together to encourage their own suppliers to identify Uzbek cotton, and to engage further with cotton traders and textile mills to ensure all parts of the commodity chain are covered. Through F&C's engagement, more than 70 companies committed in 2010 to phase out Uzbek cotton and to pass those policies on to their suppliers.

Mercy Investment Services continues to monitor this issue and determine how we can encourage companies to avoid using child labor. As part of the Sisters of Mercy's concern for children, Mercy Investment Services works to preserve human dignity by engaging companies on issues including child labor and human trafficking. Click here to read more about Mercy Investment Services' shareholder advocacy priorities, including human trafficking and fair treatment of workers.