On April 9, the Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee on East Asian and Pacific Affairs held a hearing to review U.S. efforts to end the trafficking of women and children. Subcommittee Chair Sam Brownback (R-KS) noted that his “personal involvement on the issue of human trafficking” comes from his “experience with Sudan and the realization that slavery…is still prevalent in some dark corners of the world.” He added, “Perhaps the most personally degrading practice is slavery, which, incredibly, still exists in the Sudan. It is tolerated, if not accommodated, by the national government against its own people.”
In 2000, Congress approved the Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TVPA) (P.L. 106-386), authorizing funding for efforts to combat trafficking, including prevention activities, counseling and treatment services, food, shelter, translation and legal assistance to survivors, and monitoring efforts. The TVPA, sponsored by Sen. Brownback and the late Sen. Paul Wellstone (D-MN), also established an Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons within the State Department, which provides support for an interagency task force to address trafficking.
Under the TVPA, foreign assistance is authorized to enable countries to meet minimum standards with respect to the elimination of trafficking. These standards include the drafting of laws to prohibit trafficking and punish traffickers; the investigation and prosecution of traffickers; the creation and maintenance of facilities, programs, projects, and activities for the protection of victims; and the expansion of exchange programs and international visitor programs for governmental and nongovernmental personnel to combat trafficking.
The law also requires the State Department to report to Congress on whether countries are meeting the minimum standards. Countries are assigned to a three-tier system: tier one countries meet the minimum standards and are fully complying with those standards; tier two countries are not fully complying with the minimum standards but are making a significant effort to comply; and tier three countries are not fully complying with the minimum standards and are not making any effort to comply.
Beginning this year, the President will be required to withhold non-humanitarian and non-trade-related assistance from countries failing to meet the minimum standards. There are certain instances in which the President may waive the imposition of those sanctions, such as if the sanctions would harm vulnerable populations.
John Miller of the State Department’s Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons informed the committee that his office “seeks to expand and encourage cooperation between and among neighboring governments. After working closely with the governments in the Mekong region, we have seen, for example, the beginnings of cooperative efforts between governments to ensure that trafficking victims are humanely treated and where appropriate, are helped to return voluntarily to their countries of origin.”
He added, “Similar bilateral and regional cooperation is occurring as governments more fully recognize that trafficking in persons is a transnational crime.” Mr. Miller also said that one concern “is that a lack of transparency and weak institutions are hampering the effectiveness of efforts to combat trafficking in some countries.” However, he added, “we have expressed these concerns to our partners and are working vigorously to help them address these broader issues.”
Noting the correlation between victims of trafficking and HIV/AIDS, Dr. Donna Hughes of the University of Rhode Island said that “brothels and other sites where women and children are used in prostitution are markets for the distribution of the AIDS virus.” She continued by saying that in some places, “aid programs claim that a 100 percent condom use policy has resulted in lowering the incidence of AIDS, but it has come at a cost of overlooking and even excusing the sex slave trade.” Dr. Hughes stressed that “it is unacceptable to provide medical services and condoms to enslaved people and ignore the slavery.”
After calling trafficking “the ugliest and most preventable man-made disaster in our world today,” Gary Haugen of the International Justice Mission added that “this ugly and appalling epidemic is also one of the most preventable catastrophes.” He suggested guidelines for enforcing anti-trafficking efforts, including “vigorous and transparent” reporting on a government’s record of sex trafficking convictions and police disciplinary actions, threatening consequences for noncompliant governments, and enforcing jail time for perpetrators. Mr. Haugen also expressed his hope that U.S. anti-trafficking activities will “deliver tangible results to vulnerable women and children and hasten the day when these brutal enterprises of rape for profit are simply put out of business.”
