[Congressional Bills 111th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H. Res. 929 Introduced in House (IH)]
111th CONGRESS
1st Session
H. RES. 929
Recognizing December 2 as the International Day for the Abolition of
Slavery and the 60th anniversary of the adoption by the United Nations
General Assembly of the Convention for the Suppression of the Traffic
in Persons and of the Exploitation of the Prostitution of Others and
commending the efforts of modern day abolitionists following in the
tradition of Frederick Douglass.
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
November 19, 2009
Ms. Richardson (for herself, Mrs. Christensen, Ms. Norton, Mr. Hare,
Mr. Johnson of Georgia, Mr. Fattah, Mr. Cohen, Ms. Moore of Wisconsin,
Ms. Jackson-Lee of Texas, Mr. Grijalva, and Mr. Honda) submitted the
following resolution; which was referred to the Committee on Foreign
Affairs
_______________________________________________________________________
RESOLUTION
Recognizing December 2 as the International Day for the Abolition of
Slavery and the 60th anniversary of the adoption by the United Nations
General Assembly of the Convention for the Suppression of the Traffic
in Persons and of the Exploitation of the Prostitution of Others and
commending the efforts of modern day abolitionists following in the
tradition of Frederick Douglass.
Whereas Frederick Douglass was born Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey near
Easton, Maryland, in February of 1818 and lived the first 20 years of
his life as a slave before escaping to freedom in 1838 through the
Underground Railroad and, with the assistance of abolitionists,
resettled in New Bedford, Massachusetts, changed his name to avoid
recapture by fugitive slave bounty hunters, and began a new life as
Frederick Douglass;
Whereas Frederick Douglass, who had no formal education and taught himself to
read and write, would go on to become one of the Nation's leading
abolitionists, and whose seminal work, ``Narrative of the Life of
Frederick Douglass, an American Slave'', explained with unsurpassed
eloquence and detail how slavery corrupts the human spirit and robs both
master and slave of their freedom;
Whereas Frederick Douglass, through his writings, lectures, speeches, activism,
and friendship with President Lincoln helped the Nation summon the will
to accept civil war as the price to abolish slavery and emancipate
millions from bondage;
Whereas Frederick Douglass devoted his life to the struggle for freedom, human
dignity, and the full measure of civil and human rights for all men and
women, famously observing that ``where there is no struggle, there is no
progress; power concedes nothing without demand. It never has and never
will.'';
Whereas notwithstanding the end of the Transatlantic slave trade two centuries
ago or ending of the Civil War, issuance of the Emancipation
Proclamation, and ratification of the Fifteenth Amendment to the United
States Constitution, the scourge of modern day slavery and trafficking
in persons still confronts the international community and must continue
to be met with the fierce resistance and determined opposition that was
the hallmark of Frederick Douglass and other abolitionists of the 19th
century;
Whereas 60 years ago the international community, acting through the United
Nations, affirmed its opposition to modern day slavery and human
trafficking and expressed its resolve to combat this evil by adopting
the Convention for the Suppression of the Traffic in Persons and of the
Exploitation of the Prostitution of Others on December 2, 1949, and
later proclaimed December 2 as the ``International Day for the Abolition
of Slavery'';
Whereas the international community has also adopted other conventions to combat
the trafficking in persons and modern day slavery, including the
Protocol to Prevent, Suppress & Punish Trafficking in Persons,
International Labor Organization Convention 182, Elimination of Worst
Forms of Child Labor, Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights
of the Child on the Sale of Children, Child Prostitution and Child
Pornography, Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the
Child in Armed Conflict, International Labor Organization Convention 29,
Forced Labour, and the International Labor Organization Convention 105,
Abolition of Forced Labour;
Whereas despite the efforts of governments and nongovernmental organizations
such as the Frederick Douglass Family Foundation, Human Rights Watch,
Global Rights, the Coalition Against Slavery and Trafficking, Safe
Horizon, Break the Chains, and the Polaris Project to eradicate the
scourge of human trafficking, the problem persists and manifests itself
in the following forms of modern-day slavery, forced labor, involuntary
domestic servitude, sex trafficking, child sex trafficking, bonded
labor, forced child labor, and child soldiers, and debt bondage among
migrant laborers;
Whereas the International Labor Organization estimates that at any given time
12,300,000 adults and children live in conditions of forced labor and
sexual servitude and that 1,390,000 persons are victims of national and
transnational sex trafficking;
Whereas it is estimated that between 600,000 and 800,000 victims are trafficked
through international borders every year and millions more are
trafficked domestically within their own countries;
Whereas according to the Report to Congress from Attorney General John Ashcroft
on U.S. Government Efforts to Combat Trafficking in Persons in Fiscal
Year 2003, each year an estimated 14,500 to 17,500 foreign nationals are
trafficked into the United States with the largest number of people
trafficked into the United States coming from East Asia and the Pacific
and the next highest numbers coming from Latin America, Europe, and
Eurasia;
Whereas these numbers pale in comparison to the number of persons trafficked
within the United States each year, with an estimated 200,000 children
in the United States at risk for trafficking into the sex industry;
Whereas 56 percent of victims of modern day slavery and trafficking are women
and children because traffickers prey on those who suffer most from
gender discrimination, family violence, and a lack of access to
education and economic opportunity;
Whereas human trafficking is the fastest growing criminal enterprise in the 21st
century generating revenues in excess of $9,000,000,000 and ranking
second, after drug smuggling and tying with arms dealing, in organized
crime activities;
Whereas as the 2009 Trafficking in Persons (TIP) Report of the United States
Department of State indicates, human trafficking is a multi-dimensional
threat in that it deprives people of their human rights and freedoms,
increases global health risks, and fuels the growth of organized crime;
Whereas the United States, Japan, and Australia are the top three destination
points for trafficked victims, although human trafficking is prevalent
throughout the world and has been found to exist in at least 175
countries; and
Whereas there remains a stark disparity between the large global problem of
trafficking in persons and the low numbers of prosecutions and
convictions of forced labor trafficking crimes (less than 10 percent of
all convictions): Now, therefore, be it
Resolved, That the House of Representatives--
(1) recognizes the International Day for the Abolition of
Slavery and the 60th anniversary of the adoption by the United
Nations General Assembly of the Convention for the Suppression
of the Traffic in Persons and of the Exploitation of the
Prostitution of Others;
(2) encourages member states of the United Nations and
international organizations to devote additional resources to
apprehend, prosecute, and punish persons engaged in human
trafficking and to detect, disrupt, and dismantle criminal
enterprises organized for that purpose;
(3) commends the efforts of domestic and international
nongovernmental organizations to expose, prevent, and document
all forms of modern day slavery and human trafficking and to
assist victims reintegrate into society;
(4) commends the Frederick Douglass Family Foundation for
preserving the legacy of Frederick Douglass by continuing his
struggle for freedom and human dignity for all persons and
seeking to abolish all forms of modern-day slavery and
trafficking in persons;
(5) encourages the people of the United States to observe
the International Day for the Abolition of Slavery by
participating in activities designed to heighten public
awareness of the prevalence of human trafficking and commends
the example of children engaged in such projects under the
auspices of the Frederick Douglass Family Foundation at the
following schools, Brentwood School of Los Angeles, California,
Las Vegas Area School of Las Vegas, Nevada, North Lawndale
College Preparatory Charter High School of Chicago, Illinois,
Booker T. Washington High School of Atlanta, Georgia, Roosevelt
Middle School of New Bedford, Massachusetts, New Era Academy of
Baltimore, Maryland, Edmund Burke School of Washington, DC,
Frederick Douglass Academy IV, and the United Nations
International School of New York, New York, and Wilson
Foundation Academy of Rochester, New York;
(6) urges all members of the international community to
redouble their efforts to and renew their resolve to eradicate
modern-day slavery and the practice of trafficking in persons
from the face of the earth; and
(7) requests the Clerk of the House to transmit an enrolled
copy of this resolution to the principals of each of the
schools listed in resolved (5) and to the Chairman of the Board
of the Frederick Douglass Family Foundation.
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