The Women's Freedom Network Newsletter Sept/Oct and Nov/Dec, 1999, Vol. 6, Nos. 5 & 6. NATIONAL CONFERENCE ON SEXUAL TRAFFICKING Law Enforcement and Legislation Guest Speaker: Gary A. Haugen, President of the International Justice Mission Gary A. Haugen

I work for an organization called the International Justice Mission. It's a very small organization, very young, and we do a very simple thing. We take referrals of human rights cases that come from faith-based organizations that have been sent out to serve overseas, mostly from the Christian community who work in relief and development, or missions, or medical relief or education. When they come across human rights abuses that they feel they're unable to deal with themselves directly, they refer those cases to us.

We've put together an agency of law enforcement professionals and public justice professionals to take on these cases, to investigate them and to intervene on behalf of the victims, either directly ourselves or working with other organizations.

Sadly, frequently what we are directed to deal with are cases of forced prostitution, an enormous amount of trafficking for sexual purposes in ways that are unbelievably brutal.

When people point us to places in the world where there is forced child prostitution, we send criminal investigators in to infiltrate those brothels and to use surveillance technology to prove where the children are being held, and then we establish and secure police contact, conduct raids on the brothels with the police contacts, get the children out, and get them referred for after-care services.

However, those of us who endeavor to do something very broad and global about international sexual trafficking, will not be effective unless we are able to do something about the forced prostitution that is tolerated at a local level.

Which means that we must impact local law enforcement if we are going to shut down international sexual trafficking. We must ratchet up the cost of doing business for those who trade in children and women who have been abducted into prostitution. And it is only local law enforcement that can do that. Someone must come with coercive capacity to overcome the brothel keepers who beat up fourteen year old girls.

The question is how to do that? There are three ways that I think it can be done. First, the police, as they operate in the actual street, respond to a chain of command. So the first thing that has to happen is that enforcement against forced prostitution must be a priority of the people at the top of the chain of command. If it is not a very, very urgent priority, it will not become a priority for the street level law enforcement.

If they have a sense that if we don't do something about this problem in our streets there may be some negative impact on our relationship with this superpower government, maybe we might need to make this an urgent priority. So sometimes the United States can make the 'goodies' of its relationship with that government contingent upon whether or not they demonstrate a seriousness in dealing with this problem.

Secondly, they not only need it to be a priority at the top of the chain of command. they need clear and comprehensive laws. In some instances, it's not a lack of intelligence or clear law that is the problem. It's people's interest in actually enforcing those laws.

But there are other occasions where laws are very outdated, or they were written with a very un-enlightened view of the situation or have never been adjusted or changed, so adaptations of law are helpful. And, finally, the quality of resources and training that are provided to local law enforcement is critical.

All the work that we do everywhere around the world releasing children from forced prostitution requires us having a positive relationship with local law enforcement because they can get the children out. The painstaking work of identifying those relationships, training them, resourcing them and giving them greater opportunities-- especially special units-- enables us to do the enforcement actions I think can be productive.

Finally, I wish there were a lot more women in law enforcement. I think there would be perhaps a different approach by our nation and our law enforcement, if there was greater participation by women at that level.