[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 24 (Tuesday, March 10, 1998)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1702-S1705]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
SENATE CONCURRENT RESOLUTION 82--RELATIVE TO A VIOLATION OF FUNDAMENTAL
HUMAN RIGHTS
Mr. WELLSTONE (for himself and Mrs. Feinstein) submitted the
following concurrent resolution; which was referred to the Committee on
Foreign Relations:
S. Con. Res. 82
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;
[[Page S1703]]
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 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 Senate (the House of Representatives
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 Secretary of the Senate shall transmit a copy
of this resolution to the President, the Secretary of State,
and the Attorney General.
Mr. WELLSTONE. Mr. President, in honor of International Women's Day,
I am submitting, along with my colleague Senator Feinstein, legislation
to curb a horrific practice: the forced or coerced trafficking of women
and girls for the purposes of sexual exploitation. This resolution will
effectively put Congress on record as opposing trafficking for forced
prostitution and domestic servitude, and acting to check it before the
lives of more women and girls are shattered.
One of the fastest growing international trafficking businesses is
the trade in women. Women and girls seeking a better life, a good
marriage, or a lucrative job abroad, unexpectedly find themselves
forced to work as prostitutes, or in sweat shops. Seeking this better
life, they are lured by local advertisements for good jobs in foreign
countries at wages they could never imagine at home.
Every year, the trafficking of human beings for the sex trade affects
hundreds of thousands of women throughout the world. Women and children
whose lives have been disrupted by civil wars, or fundamental changes
in political geography, such as the disintegration of the Soviet Union,
have fallen prey to traffickers. The International Organization for
Migration has said that as many as 500,000 women are annually
trafficked into Western Europe alone.
Upon arrival in countries far from their homes, these women are often
stripped of their passports, held against their will in slave-like
conditions, and sexually abused. Rape, intimidation, and violence are
commonly employed by traffickers to control their victims and to
prevent them from seeking help. Through physical isolation and
psychological trauma, traffickers and brothel owners imprison women in
a world of economic and sexual exploitation that imposes a constant
fear of arrest and deportation, as well as of violent reprisals by the
traffickers themselves, to whom the women must pay off ever-growing
debts. Many brothel owners actually prefer foreign women--women who are
far from help and home, and who do not speak the language--precisely
because of the ease of controlling them.
Most of these women never imagined that they would enter such a
hellish world, having traveled abroad to find better jobs or to see the
world. Many in their naivete, believed that nothing bad could happen to
them in the rich and comfortable countries such as Switzerland,
Germany, or the United States. Others, who are less naive but desperate
for money and opportunity, are no less hurt by the trafficker's brutal
grip.
One of the most disturbing trends in trafficking is the growing
number of young women and children. For various reasons, including the
AIDS epidemic, virgins are increasingly in demand and can fetch some of
the highest prices in the international sex market. In the most extreme
cases, criminals buy and sell children as if these children were mere
objects or animals.
Trafficking rings are run by criminals often operating through
nominally reputable agencies. Through entertainment companies,
employment or marriage agencies, these criminals mislead and manipulate
women. Lack of awareness of complacency among government officials,
such as border and consular officers, contribute to the problem.
Further, traffickers are rarely punished as official policies inhibit
women from testifying against their traffickers, making forced
prostitution highly profitable, low risk business ventures.
Last year, according to a report in the Washington Post, the FBI
raided a massage parlor in downtown Bethesda, right next to Congress,
right next to Washington, DC. The massage parlor was involved in the
trafficking of Russian women into the United States. The eight Russian
women who worked there, lived at the massage parlor, sleeping on the
massage tables at night. They were charged $150 a week for ``housing''
and were not paid any salary, only receiving a portion of their tips.
Gillian Caldwell and her organization, Global Survival Network (GSN),
conducted an extraordinary two-year investigation of the growing
international transport of Russian women for prostitution. GSN found
that trafficking networks in Russia charge women anywhere from $1,500
to $30,000 for their ``services'' in facilitating documentation, jobs,
and transportation. A relationship of debt-bondage is created that the
woman can never defeat.
Fortunately, the global trade in women and children is receiving
greater attention by governments and NGOs
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following the UN World Conference on Women in Beijing. The United
Nations General Assembly has called upon all governments to criminalize
trafficking, to punish its offenders, while not penalizing its victims.
The President's Interagency Council on Women is working hard to
mobilize a response to this problem. But, much, much more must be done.
Recognizing this worldwide problem, my resolution calls upon the
State Department and the Department of Justice to increase their
efforts to investigate and take action against international sex
trafficking, and to report to Congress about their finding and steps
taken to curb this problem. Further, it seeks to reduce incidences of
trafficking and forced prostitution by making information available to
warn at risk women and girls of the potential dangers they may face.
Finally, it provides for training of consular officials, incentives for
victims to testify against traffickers, and services for victims of
trafficking.
This resolution strengthens the work of the President's Interagency
Council on Women, and has the support of a broad array of
organizations: Human Rights Watch, Global Survival Network, Ayuda,
National Network on Behalf of Battered Immigrant Women, International
Human Rights Law Group, Program for Appropriate Technology in Health,
and the National Council on International Health.
I would like to thank the above organizations and agencies who helped
craft this legislation. We must commit ourselves to ending the
trafficking of women and girls and to building a world in which such
exploitation is relegated to the dark past. I urge my colleagues to
cosponsor this resolution, and I urge its timely passage. The President
tomorrow will sign an Executive order which will also deal with this
problem. We will work on passing the resolution, and also to make sure
that this translates into legislative action.
Mr. President, it is absolutely unconscionable that this goes on in
the world, including our country.
I will come to the floor later on with a blown-up map. But this is a
sample of routes used to traffic women for prostitution from the Newly
Independent States in the former Soviet Union, and all over the world.
But also you see an arrow coming to the United States and to a lot of
the European countries. It is just unconscionable that this is
happening to women and to girls and essentially the international
community has turned its gaze away from it.
It is important that we have cosponsors for this resolution and that
we pass this concurrent resolution with an overwhelming vote. I look
forward to the Senate and the House of Representatives working with the
President on this matter.
I hope that we will get a strong vote for this resolution by the end
of the week, an up-or-down vote, which, if we have a commitment to do
so, I hope the administration will take the action on.
Finally, Mr. President, let me just thank Senator Feinstein for
working with me on this resolution.
Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to have printed in the Record
excerpts from this book entitled ``Crime and Servitude: An Expose of
the Traffic in Women for Prostitution from the Newly Independent
States, A report by the Global Survival Network, In Collaboration with
the International League for Human Rights.''
Mr. President, I want these excerpts printed in the Record because I
want history to show that for the first time the U.S. Senate is going
to take a position on this issue. I want this included in the Record
because I want history to show that for the first time the U.S. Senate
is going to make it clear that we are not going to be silent when it
comes to the most brutal treatment of women and girls throughout the
world. These are all God's children, and we intend to take a strong
position, and we intend to put the resolution into legislation and do
everything we can to try to provide the protection for these women and
these children.
There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in
the Record, as follows:
Crime and Servitude, an Expose of the Traffic in Women for Prostitution
from the Newly Independent States
(A report by the Global Survival Network in collaboration with the
International League for Human Rights)
preface
The United Nations estimates that four million people are
trafficked throughout the world each year, resulting in
illicit profits to criminal syndicates of up to seven billion
dollars annually. One of the fastest growing trafficking
businesses is the sex trade.
This ground-breaking report details the findings of a two-
year investigation by the Global Survival Network into the
trafficking of women from Russia and the Newly Independent
States for prostitution. Each day, thousands of women and
girls are lured into the international sex trade with
promises of a better life and a lucrative job abroad. These
false promises are especially appealing to the scores of
unemployed and underemployed women struggling to survive in
impoverished regions and in societies facing post-Communist
transition.
They are transported by bus, plane, and train to Europe,
Asia, the Middle East, and North America, where they
unexpectedly find themselves forced into cruel sexual
exploitation. They may be forced to work for months or years
without earnings, and many endure deep physical and
psychological trauma as a result of their experience. In the
worst of cases, they may lose not only their freedom but also
their lives.
Trafficking has been recognized by the United Nations as a
form of slavery and violence against women. It has also been
condemned by numerous international human rights documents,
including the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of
Discrimination Against Women, the Convention for the
Suppression of the Traffic in Persons and the Exploitation of
the Prostitution of Others, the Declaration on the
Elimination of Discrimination Against Women, and the
Convention on the Rights of the Child.
Despite the many prohibitions against trafficking,
international networks that market women and children for
prostitution continue to thrive. Their success can be
attributed to several factors, including the global economic
trends, the declining socioeconomic status of women, the
enormous profitability of the business, government inaction,
and, in the most egregious circumstances, government
complicity.
It will not be possible to address the growing problem of
trafficking without the collaboration of state institutions
and nongovernmental organizations, and both have their own
challenges to meet. Governments must identify and remove
corrupt public officials acting as accomplices of sex
traders, and resist the pressure to attempt to address
trafficking by restricting migration, which exacerbates the
problem and leads to a violation of another fundamental human
right, the freedom of movement.
For the human rights movement, trafficking extends beyond
the familiar set of civil and political concerns. It is a
multidimensional problem which demands comprehensive
evaluation. Recommended responses must be informed by active
cooperation between the traditional human rights community
and the newer women's rights groups.
Moreover, because trafficking is a problem that transcends
national borders, it demands a transnational response.
Collaborative relationships must be formed between the
``sending countries'' of the former Eastern Bloc, Asia,
Africa and Latin America, and ``receiving countries'' in the
wealthier nations of North America and Western Europe.
This report was prepared for distribution at an
international conference in Moscow on ``The Trafficking of
NIS Women Abroad,'' coordinated jointly by Sysotri (Moscow),
the Global Survival Network (Washington, D.C.), the
International League for Human Rights (New York), and hosted
at the Andrei Sakharov Foundation. This remarkable
collaborative effort represents a critical first step toward
developing cooperative and transnational relationships to
address this massive violation of human rights.
Let us work together to eradicate this form of modern-day
slavery, because no society is truly democratic until all
human beings are guaranteed their rights to freedom, dignity,
and equality.
Sincerely,
Anastasia Posadskaya-Vanderbeck, Ph.D.
i. a testimony from hell
[Slavery is] the status or condition of a person over whom
any or all of the powers attaching to right of ownership are
exercised.--Slavery Convention, 1926.
No one shall be held in slavery or servitude; slavery and
the slave trade shall be prohibited in all their forms.--
Universal Declaration of Human Rights, 1948.
You cannot give them any [money]. It means that they will
live in the States without any cash, without any money.--
Russian Trafficker, 1996.
Every year, the trafficking of human beings for the sex
trade puts hundreds of thousands of women at risk of losing
their personal freedom, suffering physical and emotional
harm, working in degrading and sometimes life-threatening
situations, and being cheated of their earnings. Since the
break-up of the Soviet Union, an increasing percentage of
these women are from Russia and the Newly Independent States.
Most of them never imagined that they would enter such a
hellish world of crime and servitude, having traveled abroad
to find better jobs or to see the world. Many, in their
naivete, believed that nothing bad could happen to them in
rich and comfortable countries such
[[Page S1705]]
as Switzerland, Germany, Japan, or the United States. Others,
who were less naive but still desperate for money and
opportunity, are equally affected by the cruel and
unforgiving grip of traffickers.
Unfortunately, during the chaos of massive political,
social, and economic change in Russia and the Newly
Independent States, criminal elements have been able to
establish themselves in the international business of
trafficking women. Operating through nominally reputable
employment agencies, entertainment companies, or marriage
agencies, these criminals mislead and manipulate women, who
become pawns in a vicious, illegal worldwide trade. In the
most extreme cases, the criminals buy and sell women and
children as if they were mere objects or animals.
Lena's story
To understand what it means to be a slave today, consider
the case of ``Lena.''
Several years ago in the Russian Far East, 19-year-old
Lena, seeking to travel and earn money, joined several other
Russian women who had responded to a newspaper ad for a work
and study program in China. ``They brought us the contracts
that described all the conditions: medical insurance,
housing, food, travel there and back,'' reported Lena.
The women were flown to Jukhai, China, where they studied
cooking for a month. ``Everything seemed fine. Until they
took our passports, in spite of the fact that the contract
had a point that said that everybody should have their
passports with them,'' she continued. ``Then they didn't
return our passports. When we demanded them, they immediately
and categorically told us `$15,000 for each passport.''' It
soon became clear that the ``restaurant'' Lena had been hired
to work in didn't exist, and none of the girls were being
paid.
One of the girls in Lena's group, a 17-year-old, was
purchased by a competing group, which paid $15,000 for her
passport and transported her to Macau to work as a
prostitute. From that point on, Lena and her friends endured
beatings, imprisonment, and hunger. ``They began to withhold
our monthly salaries. They locked us up without food and
without money. There was a balcony...You could jump if you
wanted to die.'' The Chinese bosses said they would give the
girls their passports if they started to ``cooperate,'' which
meant working in hotels, restaurants, and karaoke clubs as
``entertainers'' and prostitutes for Chinese men.
Lena and her friends eventually escaped. With little money
and enraged by what had happened to them, they traveled to
several Chinese cities and appealed without success to
Russian consulates and Chinese city mayors for assistance to
return home. ``At times we had to work like this: you're
walking down the street, a car drives up, you agree that
tonight you'll sit with them in a restaurant, karaoke, and
they will pay you some money for it. Just like
prostitution.'' The women met some Russian men who offered to
help them return home in exchange for sexual favors. ``So
that's how we worked for three months, to make some money to
leave. We had to work in different places, some of them
awful, when there was not even a penny in the wallet.''
Lena and the others finally managed to get back to Russia.
At home now, Lena says she has a hard time trusting anyone
and keeps a gun for protection. ``I sometimes have to turn to
a psychiatrist to put myself back in place, because I became
very jumpy. My health is ruined. I simply curse the day when
my romantic notions made me decide, having trusted these
people, to go see China,'' she concluded.
The investigation
Thousands of women from Russia and the Newly Independent
States have endured such exploitation and slavery during
recent years, yet their stories have been largely ignored by
most law-enforcement agencies and governments. Unfortunately,
as this report reveals, police agencies in receiving
countries often minimize the extent of trafficking. And
governments usually respond to trafficking as a problem of
illegal migration, an approach that transforms women
victimized by particular circumstances into criminals.
To learn why and how this form of modern slavery persists,
and to propose solutions, the Global Survival Network (GSN)
conducted a study from August 1995 through the Autumn of 1997
to uncover the rapidly growing trade in Russian women for
purposes of prostitution.
Because of the underground nature of the trade, the study
combined conventional and unconventional methodologies. GSN
conducted open interviews with numerous non-governmental
organizations, more than fifty women who had been trafficked
overseas, and police and government officials in Russia,
Western Europe, Asia, and the United States.
In order to delve into and learn more about the world of
organized crime and its role in Russian sex trafficking, GSN
also conducted some unconventional research. GSN established
a dummy company that purportedly specialized in importing
foreign women as escorts and entertainers. The company was
``based'' in the United States and claimed to specialize in
``Foreign Models, Escorts, and Entertainers.'' Company
``employees'' represented the business. Brochures, business
cards, and a telephone and fax line give the operation a look
of authenticity. Under the guise of this company, GSN
successfully gained entree to the shadowy operations of
international trafficking networks based in Russia and
beyond. Many of the interviews were recorded with hidden
cameras and provide unique insight into the trafficking
underworld in action.
While conducting investigations with this front, GSN met
Russian pimps and traffickers who revealed their modus
operandi, as well as the identities of their financial
investors and overseas partners. GSN combined these findings
with other information collected through interviews with non-
governmental organizations, law enforcement agencies,
trafficked women, and relevant news reports. Taken together,
this information provided GSN with enough detail to target
several countries where Russian women and girls work as
prostitutes in substantial numbers, including Germany,
Switzerland, Japan, Macau, and the United States. Wherever
legal, interviews were recorded by hidden camera directly
inside the establishments where prostitution was occurring.
Whenever possible, the investigators revealed the nature of
their work.
In some cases, security conditions for both the
investigator and the persons interviewed prevented
disclosure. In order to preserve the safety and privacy of
all parties involved, pseudonyms have been given to the
persons interviewed during GSN's covert investigations, and
whenever requested otherwise. The videotaped material has
been transcribed and is used to tell much of the story you
are about to read.
Trafficking networks flourish in large part because
governments, officials, and citizens fail to speak out and to
act. Criminals operate with impunity when they have corrupted
the law-enforcement personnel who ostensibly combat them.
GSN's investigation has not only sought to expose the
degrading nature and viciousness of human trafficking, but
also to provide insight into how to stop it.
This report offers concrete recommendations for action and
policies that can rein in traffickers and provide assistance
to their victims. To understand the recommendations, it is
first necessary to understand trafficking: who does it, and
why; how it can exist outside the law; how it violates basic
human rights; and why its victims so rarely seek help.
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