[Congressional Record Volume 146, Number 4 (Thursday, January 27, 2000)]
[House]
[Page H13]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
U.N. PROSTITUTION PROTOCOL
(Mr. PITTS asked and was given permission to address the House for 1
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
Mr. PITTS. Mr. Speaker, imagine a woman filled with hope accepting a
new job in a big city. Promises of freedom from manual labor and better
income have lured her away from her family. When she meets her new
boss, she is crushed. She is given tight clothes to wear, condoms for
her customers, she is beaten, raped, locked in a trailer and forced to
have sex with whoever walks in the trailer.
Unfortunately, this happens every day in some parts of Asia, Africa,
Latin America and, yes, even the United States.
Many of us were surprised to learn that the administration's
Interagency Council on Women has apparently been supporting a move to
alter the U.N. Convention on Transnational Organized Crime to accept
so-called ``voluntary'' prostitution. They want to adopt what is called
the Netherland's definition of prostitution, which excludes anything
that cannot be proven to be coerced.
Mr. Speaker, this would make it virtually impossible to prosecute sex
traffickers in nations adopting this protocol. We should oppose the
forced Europeanization of America by United Nations' bureaucrats using
the failed social policies of the Netherlands.
I hope it is not true, and I hope this will be stopped.
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