[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 145 (1999), Part 10]
[Senate]
[Pages 14824-14826]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



      FOREIGN OPERATIONS, EXPORT FINANCING, AND RELATED PROGRAMS 
                  APPROPRIATIONS ACT, 2000--Continued


                    Amendment No. 1123, As Modified

  Mr. WELLSTONE. Mr. President, I will shortly send a modified 
amendment to the desk. In the time I have, let me speak on a topic I 
think is related to this bill.
  Mr. LEAHY. Will the Senator from Minnesota yield? I have been advised 
by Senator McConnell's staff this has been cleared, the modification 
has been cleared. If the Senator from Minnesota wishes to send it to 
the desk we can have it accepted.
  Mr. WELLSTONE. I send my modified amendment No. 1123 to the desk.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The amendment is modified.
  The amendment (No. 1123), as modified, is as follows:

       On page 128, between lines 13 and 14, insert the following 
     new title:

     TITLE--INTERNATIONAL TRAFFICKING OF WOMEN AND CHILDREN VICTIM 
                               PROTECTION

     SEC. __01. SHORT TITLE.

       This title may be cited as the ``International Trafficking 
     of Women and Children Victim Reporting Act of 1999''.

     SEC. __02. FINDINGS.

       Congress makes the following findings:
       (1) The worldwide trafficking of persons has a 
     disproportionate impact on women and girls and has been and 
     continues to be condemned by the international community as a 
     violation of fundamental human rights.
       (2) The fastest growing international trafficking business 
     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.
       (3) Trafficked women and children, girls and boys, 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.
       (4) The President, the First Lady, the Secretary of State, 
     the President's Interagency Council on Women, and the Agency 
     for International Development have all identified trafficking 
     in women as a significant problem.
       (5) 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 and girls at risk to 
     traffickers, and to take measures to dismantle the national, 
     regional, and international networks on trafficking.
       (6) 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 1998 
     calling upon all governments to criminalize trafficking in 
     women and girls in all its forms and to penalize all those 
     offenders involved, while ensuring that the victims of these 
     practices are not penalized.
       (7) Numerous treaties to which the United States is a party 
     address government obligations to combat 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 requires signatories not to 
     make use of any forced or compulsory labor.

     SEC. __03. PURPOSES.

       The purposes of this title are to condemn and combat the 
     international crime of trafficking in women and children and 
     to assist the victims of this crime by authorizing an annual 
     report of its findings to include the identification of 
     foreign governments that tolerate or participate in 
     trafficking and fail to cooperate with international efforts 
     to prosecute perpetrators;

     SEC. __04. DEFINITIONS.

       In this title:

[[Page 14825]]

       (1) Trafficking.--The term ``trafficking'' means the use of 
     deception, coercion, debt bondage, the threat of force, or 
     the abuse of authority to recruit, transport within or across 
     borders, purchase, sell, transfer, receive, or harbor a 
     person for the purpose of placing or holding such person, 
     whether for pay or not, in involuntary servitude, or slavery 
     or slavery-like conditions, or in forced, bonded, or coerced 
     labor.
       (2) Victim of trafficking.--The term ``victim of 
     trafficking'' means any person subjected to the treatment 
     described in paragraph (2).

     SEC. __05. ANNUAL REPORT TO CONGRESS.

       Not later than March 1, 2000, the Secretary of State shall 
     submit a report to Congress describing the status of 
     international trafficking, including--
       (1) a list of foreign states where trafficking originates, 
     passes through, or is a destination; and
       (2) an assessment of the efforts by the governments 
     described in paragraph (1) to combat trafficking. Such an 
     assessment shall address--
       (A) whether governmental authorities tolerate or are 
     involved in trafficking activities;
       (B) which governmental authorities are involved in anti-
     trafficking activities;
       (C) what steps the government has taken toward ending the 
     participation of its officials in trafficking;
       (D) what steps the government has taken to prosecute and 
     investigate those officials found to be involved in 
     trafficking;
       (E) what steps the government has taken to prohibit other 
     individuals from participating in trafficking, including the 
     investigation, prosecution, and conviction of individuals 
     involved in trafficking, the criminal and civil penalties for 
     trafficking, and the efficacy of those penalties on reducing 
     or ending trafficking;
       (F) what steps the government has taken to assist 
     trafficking victims, including efforts to prevent victims 
     from being further victimized by police, traffickers, or 
     others, grants of stays of deportation, and provision of 
     humanitarian relief, including provision of mental and 
     physical health care and shelter;
       (G) whether the government is cooperating with governments 
     of other countries to extradite traffickers when requested;
       (H) whether the government is assisting in international 
     investigations of transnational trafficking networks; and
       (I) whether the government--
       (i) refrains from prosecuting trafficking victims or 
     refrains from other discriminatory treatment towards 
     trafficking victims due to such victims having been 
     trafficked, or the nature of their work, or their having left 
     the country illegally; and
       (ii) recognizes the rights of victims and ensures their 
     access to justice.
       (c) Reporting Standards and Investigations.--
       (1) Responsibility of the secretary of state.--The 
     Secretary of State shall ensure that United States missions 
     abroad maintain a consistent reporting standard and 
     thoroughly investigate reports of trafficking.
       (2) Contacts with nongovernmental organizations.--In 
     compiling data and assessing trafficking for the Human Rights 
     Report and the Annual Report, United States mission personnel 
     shall seek out and maintain contacts with human rights and 
     other nongovernmental organizations, including receiving 
     reports and updates from such organizations, and, when 
     appropriate, investigating such reports.

     SEC. __06. PROTECTION OF TRAFFICKING VICTIMS.

  THE PRESIDING OFFICER. If there be no further debate, the question is 
on agreeing to the amendment.
  The amendment (No. 1123), as modified, was agreed to.
  Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, I move to reconsider the vote.
  Mr. WELLSTONE. I move to lay that motion on the table.
  The motion to lay on the table was agreed to.
  Several Senators addressed the Chair.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Under the previous order, the Senator from 
Vermont is recognized.
  Mr. LEAHY. I ask unanimous consent it be in order the Senator from 
Rhode Island be recognized for the 5 minutes prior to my recognition.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  The Senator from Rhode Island is recognized.


                           Amendment No. 1118

  Mr. REED. Mr. President, I thank the distinguished Senator from 
Vermont for his graciousness in allowing me to speak. I rise today to 
express my opposition to the Brownback amendment which would implement 
the Silk Road Strategy Act of 1999. I urge my colleagues to support the 
second-degree amendment offered by Senators McConnell, Abraham, and 
Sarbanes. I am also a cosponsor of the second-degree amendment.
  The purpose of Senator Brownback's amendment is appropriate, in the 
sense he wants to provide assistance to integrate the Caucasus, provide 
more cooperation and collaboration between these countries. But what we 
have seen over the last several decades, really, has been the 
resistance, particularly by the Government of Azerbaijan and the 
Government of Turkey, to a cooperative and collaborative relationship 
with the Government of Armenia. That is a polite way of saying they 
have been blockading Armenia for many years.
  In response to that blockade, we have passed, I think wisely, 
legislation in this Congress and preceding Congresses to prevent our 
cooperation with these countries unless they lift the blockade. It has 
been the only real way we have been able to put leverage upon the 
governments of Turkey and Azerbaijan to recognize that a dialog, 
cooperation, collaboration, and regional harmony is necessary.
  The interesting and ironic point at this juncture is that our 
strategy seems to be working because for the first time, in the context 
of the NATO meetings here in Washington just a few weeks ago, the 
President of Armenia and the President of Azerbaijan had face-to-face 
meetings.
  Up until that time, the Azeris refused to even recognize, really, the 
Government of Yerevan to have a constructive dialog. Now at the point 
where we are making progress, where we have a dialog initiated by the 
Azeris and the Armenians, we are attempting to undercut that progress 
with this amendment which will essentially take all the pressure off 
both the Azeris and the Turks in terms of their relationship with 
Armenia and, in particular, the region of Nagorno-Karabakh.
  Nagorno-Karabakh has been for generations an area of concentrated 
Armenian population but under the control of Azerbaijan. In 1988, 
Nagorno-Karabakh seceded from Azerbaijan. There was warfare. 
Mercifully, the warfare has ceased, but this is still a festering point 
among the three countries--Nagorno-Karabakh, Armenia, and Azerbaijan.
  Again, if we are to make progress on this very critical issue, the 
issue of Nagorno-Karabakh, the issue of the general relationship among 
Armenia and its neighbors, Azerbaijan and Turkey, now is not the time 
to take off the one piece of leverage, section 907, which is giving the 
Azeris an incentive to go to the table, sit down, and talk and 
collaborate.
  I have had the privilege and the opportunity to travel to Armenia and 
to Nagorno-Karabakh. There is a sincere willingness to seek an 
understanding, to seek a cooperative arrangement with the Azeris, with 
the Turks. But that cannot happen unless there is a dialog.
  The dialog has started, but my fear is that if we adopt this measure, 
proposed with every good intention by the Senator from Kansas, we will 
undercut the progress we have made. We will send a strong message to 
the Azeris that they do not have to do anything, they do not have to 
talk to the Armenians, they do not have to do anything, because they 
now are unrestricted in terms of their type of diplomatic initiatives.
  It will be terribly unfortunate, and it will essentially undercut the 
motivation which I believe is compelling and moving this underlying 
amendment of the Senator from Kansas forward: the notion of regional 
dialog, regional cooperation, regional collaboration.
  I urge my colleagues to support the amendment proposed by the Senator 
from Kentucky, because that is the only way we are going to keep both 
the Azeris and the Armenians at the table. We know from a long sweep of 
history, if two nations are talking, then there is hope. Once the 
dialog is over--and it will end if section 907 is repealed--we are 
going to see a much more hostile and threatening environment in the 
Caucasus, one which will not only impact our relationship but also will 
be a threat to the stability of that region.
  I thank and commend the Senator from Kentucky, the Senator from 
Maryland, Mr. Sarbanes, Senator Abraham from Michigan, and those

[[Page 14826]]

who are standing up and saying, now that we are making progress, now 
that we finally have a dialog between the President of Azerbaijan and 
the President of Armenia, do not take away the motivation for that 
dialog; let's continue to talk; let's continue to work for peace in 
this area.
  I yield back any time to the Senator from Vermont.
  Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, I thank the Senator from Rhode Island 
for his comments. We appreciate his support on this most important 
amendment. We certainly hope the Senate will approve the second-degree 
amendment.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Vermont.


                Amendment No. 1123, As Further Modified

  Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that it be in order 
for the Senator from Minnesota to further modify his amendment, which 
was adopted just a few minutes ago.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered. The 
amendment will be so modified.
  Mr. WELLSTONE. I send the modification to the desk. I thank both 
Senator Leahy and Senator McConnell for their support. This is the 
first time we are going to have such a report. It is going to be very 
important to the human rights community and the law enforcement 
community. It will have a stigmatizing effect on countries involved in 
this, and it is going to make a huge difference from the point of human 
rights.
  The amendment (No. 1123), as further modified, is as follows:
       On page 128, between lines 13 and 14, insert the following 
     new title:

     TITLE--INTERNATIONAL TRAFFICKING OF WOMEN AND CHILDREN VICTIM 
                               PROTECTION

     SEC. __01. SHORT TITLE.

       This title may be cited as the ``International Trafficking 
     of Women and Children Victim Reporting Act of 1999''.

     SEC. __02. PURPOSES.

       The purposes of this title are to condemn and combat the 
     international crime of trafficking in women and children and 
     to assist the victims of this crime by requiring an annual 
     report including the identification of foreign governments 
     that tolerate or participate in trafficking and fail to 
     cooperate with international efforts to prosecute 
     perpetrators.

     SEC. __03. DEFINITIONS.

       In this title:
       (1) Trafficking.--The term ``trafficking'' means the use of 
     deception, coercion, debt bondage, the threat of force, or 
     the abuse of authority to recruit, transport within or across 
     borders, purchase, sell, transfer, receive, or harbor a 
     person for the purpose of placing or holding such person, 
     whether for pay or not, in involuntary servitude, or slavery 
     or slavery-like conditions, or in forced, bonded, or coerced 
     labor.
       (2) Victim of trafficking.--The term ``victim of 
     trafficking'' means any person subjected to the treatment 
     described in paragraph (2).

     SEC. __04. ANNUAL REPORT TO CONGRESS.

       (a) Not later than March 1, 2000, the Secretary of State, 
     shall submit a report to Congress describing the status of 
     international trafficking, including--
       (1) a list of foreign states where trafficking originates, 
     passes through, or is a destination; and
       (2) an assessment of the efforts by the governments 
     described in paragraph (1) to combat trafficking. Such an 
     assessment shall address--
       (A) whether governmental authorities tolerate or are 
     involved in trafficking activities;
       (B) which governmental authorities are involved in anti-
     trafficking activities;
       (C) what steps the government has taken toward ending the 
     participation of its officials in trafficking;
       (D) what steps the government has taken to prosecute and 
     investigate those officials found to be involved in 
     trafficking;
       (E) what steps the government has taken to prohibit other 
     individuals from participating in trafficking, including the 
     investigation, prosecution, and conviction of individuals 
     involved in trafficking, the criminal and civil penalties for 
     trafficking, and the efficacy of those penalties on reducing 
     or ending trafficking;
       (F) what steps the government has taken to assist 
     trafficking victims, including efforts to prevent victims 
     from being further victimized by police, traffickers, or 
     others, grants of stays of deportation, and provision of 
     humanitarian relief, including provision of mental and 
     physical health care and shelter;
       (G) whether the government is cooperating with governments 
     of other countries to extradite traffickers when requested;
       (H) whether the government is assisting in international 
     investigations of transnational trafficking networks; and
       (I) whether the government--
       (i) refrains from prosecuting trafficking victims or 
     refrains from other discriminatory treatment towards 
     trafficking victims due to such victims having been 
     trafficked, or the nature of their work, or their having left 
     the country illegally; and
       (ii) recognizes the rights of victims and ensures their 
     access to justice.
       (b) Contacts with nongovernmental organizations.--In 
     compiling data and assessing trafficking for the State 
     Departments Annual Human Rights Report and the report 
     referred to in subsection (a), United States mission 
     personnel shall consult with human rights and other 
     appropriate nongovernmental organizations, including 
     receiving reports and updates from such organizations, and, 
     when appropriate, investigating such reports.

     SEC. __06. PROTECTION OF TRAFFICKING VICTIMS.

  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Vermont.

                          ____________________