[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 24 (Tuesday, March 10, 1998)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E340-E341]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




 INTRODUCTION OF RESOLUTION ON THE WORLDWIDE TRAFFICKING OF PERSONS, A 
                 VIOLATION OF FUNDAMENTAL HUMAN RIGHTS

                                 ______
                                 

                     HON. LOUISE McINTOSH SLAUGHTER

                              of new york

                    in the house of representatives

                        Tuesday, March 10, 1998

  Ms. SLAUGHTER. Mr. Speaker, I am introducing today a resolution 
condemning the global increase in the trafficking of persons and urging 
increased efforts to combat this violation of fundamental human rights.
  Trafficking involves the use of deception, coercion, abuse of 
authority, debt bondage, or fraud to exploit persons through forced 
prostitution, sexual slavery, sweatshop labor, or exploitative domestic 
service. Trafficked women are often subject to battering, cruelty, 
rape, and other forms of physical and mental abuse.
  The resolution I am introducing today, builds on my efforts over the 
past several years to bring attention to the problem of the trafficking 
of Burmese women and children into brothels in Thailand. As we learn 
more information, it is becoming tragically clear that trafficking 
knows no national or regional boundaries. Worldwide, four million women 
and children are trafficked each year, most by criminal syndicates that 
turn $7 billion in profits annually.
  Trafficking is particularly aggravated in areas of the world in 
economic and social upheaval. An unhappy side effect of the breakup of 
the Soviet Union and the Warsaw Pact is the vast increase in 
trafficking from Russia, Ukraine, Eastern Europe and the Newly 
Independent States. Criminal organizations are capitalizing on the 
poverty, rising unemployment, and the disintegration of social networks 
to exploit and abuse women and children.
  In addition to bringing attention to this troubling situation, the 
resolution lauds the anti-trafficking efforts of the President, First 
Lady, Secretary of State and the President's Interagency Council on 
Women. Working with key non-governmental organizations, they have 
focused on trafficking as a significant problem and are working to 
mobilize a comprehensive response.
  The resolution particularly directs the Departments of Justice and 
State to continue and increase their efforts to address the trafficking 
of women into the United States. We must ensure that our legal system 
can effectively prosecute traffickers and the crimes associated with 
trafficking, while ensuring the dignity and human rights of trafficking 
victims. The State Department should continue its trafficking 
prevention efforts, and its partnership with nations around the globe 
to combat these heinous crimes.
  Mr. Speaker, I ask my colleagues to join me and Senator Wellstone, 
who is introducing the Senate companion resolution, in supporting this 
resolution. We must put Congress squarely on record in opposition to 
the abhorrent practice of trafficking.

                            H. Con. Res. --

       Whereas one of the fastest growing international 
     trafficking businesses is the trade in women, whereby women 
     and girls seeking a better life, a good marriage, or a 
     lucrative job abroad, unexpectedly find themselves in 
     situations of forced prostitution, sweatshop labor, 
     exploitative domestic servitude, or battering and extreme 
     cruelty.
       Whereas trafficked women are often subjected to rape and 
     other forms of sexual abuse by their traffickers and often 
     held as virtual prisoners by their exploiters, made to work 
     in slavery-like conditions, in debt bondage without pay and 
     against their will;
       Whereas the President, the First Lady, the Secretary of 
     State, and the President's Interagency Council on Women have 
     all identified trafficking in women as a significant problem 
     and are working to mobilize a response;
       Whereas the Fourth World Conference on Women (Beijing 
     Conference) called on all governments to take measures, 
     including legislative measures, to provide better protection 
     of the rights of women and girls in trafficking, to address 
     the root factors that put women at risk to traffickers, and 
     to take measures to dismantle the national, regional, and 
     international networks in trafficking;
       Whereas the United Nations General Assembly, noting its 
     concern about the increasing number of women and girls who 
     are being victimized by traffickers, passed a resolution

[[Page E341]]

     in 1996 calling upon all governments to criminalize 
     trafficking in women and girls in all its forms and penalize 
     all those offenders involved, while ensuring that the victims 
     of these practices are not penalized; and
       Whereas numerous treaties to which the United States is a 
     party address government obligations to combat trafficking 
     and the abuses inherent in trafficking, including such 
     treaties as the 1956 Supplementary Convention on the 
     Abolition of Slavery, the Slave Trade and Institutions and 
     Practices Similar to Slavery, which calls for the complete 
     abolition of debt bondage and servile forms of marriage, and 
     the 1957 Abolition of Forced Labor Convention, which 
     undertakes to suppress and not to make use of any form of 
     forced or compulsory labor: Now, therefore, be it
       Resolved by the House of Representatives (the Senate 
     concurring), That it is the sense of Congress that--
       (1) trafficking consists of all acts involved in the 
     recruitment or transportation of persons within or across 
     borders involving deception, coercion or force, abuse of 
     authority, debt bondage or fraud, for the purpose of placing 
     persons in situations of abuse or exploitation such as forced 
     prostitution, sexual slavery, battering and extreme cruelty, 
     sweatshop labor or exploitative domestic servitude;
       (2) trafficking also involves one or more forms of 
     kidnapping, false imprisonment, rape, battering, forced labor 
     or slavery-like practices which violate fundamental human 
     rights;
       (3) to address this problem, the Department of Justice 
     Office of Violence Against Women, with the cooperation of 
     Immigration and Naturalization Service, should submit a 
     report to Congress on--
       (A) efforts to identify instances of trafficking into the 
     United States within the last 5 years;
       (B) the successes or difficulties experienced in promoting 
     interagency cooperation, cooperation between local, State, 
     and Federal authorities, and cooperation with nongovernmental 
     organizations;
       (C) the treatment and services provided, and the 
     disposition of trafficking cases in the criminal justice 
     system; and
       (D) legal and administrative barriers to more effective 
     governmental responses, including current statutes on debt 
     bondage and involuntary servitude;
       (4) in order to ensure effective prosecution of traffickers 
     and the abuses related to trafficking, victims should be 
     provided with support services and incentives to testify, 
     such as--
       (A) stays of deportation with an opportunity to apply for 
     permanent residency, witness protection, relocation 
     assistance, and asset forfeiture from trafficking networks 
     with funds set aside to provide compensation due to victims 
     of trafficking; and
       (B) services such as legal assistance in criminal, 
     administrative, and civil proceedings and confidential health 
     care;
       (5) the Secretary of State, in consultation with the 
     Department of Justice Office of Violence Against Women, and 
     nongovernmental organizations should--
       (A) develop curricula and conduct training for consular 
     officers on the prevalence and risks of trafficking and the 
     rights of victims; and
       (B) develop and disperse to visa seekers written materials 
     describing the potential risks of trafficking, including--
       (i) information as to the rights of victims in the United 
     States, including legal and civil rights in labor, marriage, 
     and for crime victims under the Violence Against Women Act; 
     and
       (ii) the names of support and advocacy organizations in the 
     United States;
       (6) the Department of State and the European Union--
       (A) are commended as to their joint initiative to promote 
     awareness of the problem of trafficking throughout countries 
     of origin in Eastern Europe and the independent states of the 
     former Soviet Union; and
       (B) should continue efforts to engage in similar programs 
     in other regions and to ensure that the dignity and the human 
     rights of trafficking victims are protected in destination 
     countries;
       (7) the State Department's Bureau for International 
     Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs, together with the 
     Department of Justice and the Department of the Treasury, 
     should continue to provide and expand funding to support 
     criminal justice training programs, which include 
     trafficking; and
       (8) the President's Interagency Council on Women should 
     submit a report to Congress, not later than 6 months after 
     the date of the adoption of this resolution, with regard to 
     the implementation by the Secretary of State and the Attorney 
     General of the duties described in this resolution.
       Sec. 2. The Clerk of the House of Representatives shall 
     transmit a copy of this resolution to the President, the 
     Secretary of State, and the Attorney General.

     

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