[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.
                                 <all>