The Women's Freedom Network Newsletter July/August, 2003;  Volume 10, No. 4. Policy Update: Human Trafficking by WFN Staff

The Women's Freedom Network has been at the forefront of efforts to raise awareness about human trafficking. In February 2002, WFN hosted a conference, "Stop Commercial Sexual Exploitation!"  (See WFN Newsletter Volume 9, Nos. 1 & 2). And earlier, in 1999, WFN organized a national conference in Washington, D.C. on sexual trafficking. (See WFN Newsletter Volume 6, Nos. 5 & 6.) To keep our members up to date on this issue, following is a summary of the hearings, appropriations, reports, and legislation related to human trafficking taken by the 108th Congress and executive branch departments--actions that show the increasing awareness among legislators and the public about the horrors of sexual trafficking.

In June 2003, the State Department's Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons released its third annual Trafficking in Persons Report. The report, available on-line at www.state.gov, notes that 800,000--900,000 people are trafficked across borders annually, between 18,000--20,000 in the United States alone. The report documents changes in trafficking patterns and places countries in one of three tiers "based on the government's efforts to combat trafficking." Unfortunately the news is not positive: thirty new countries were added as traffickers in this year's report. As the report notes:

"Human trafficking not only continues but appears to be on the rise worldwide. Many nations are touched by it in some way, serving as source, transit, and destination countries where human beings are procured, transported, and enslaved through forced labor or forced sexual exploitation. Traffickers exploit the aspirations of those living in poverty and those seeking better lives. They use dramatic improvements in transportation and communications to sell men, women, and children into situations of forced labor and sexual slavery with virtually no risk of prosecution.

The traffickers also exploit lack of political will by governments to tackle trafficking and its root causes. Corruption, weak inter-agency coordination, and low funding levels for ministries tasked with prosecuting traffickers, preventing trafficking, and protecting victims also enable traffickers to continue their operations."

There is some good news regarding enforcement, however. "This year, for the first time," the report notes, "governments that are not making significant efforts to bring themselves into compliance with the minimum standards ... face potential sanctions that include loss of certain types of U.S. assistance." As well, Congress continues to direct significant resources to the issue of human trafficking.

Sharon Cohn of the International Justice Mission noted that sex tourism fuels the international market in human trafficking and that one quarter of the world's sex tourists are Americans.

The Fiscal Year 2004 Appropriations Bill, passed in July, included $4.581 million for the State Department's Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons. And on July 23, the U.S. House International Relations Committee reauthorized the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000, which originally established the State Department Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons.

In his opening remarks about the reauthorization, Rep. Christopher Smith, the Republican from New Jersey and original sponsor of the Trafficking Victims Protection Act, said, "thanks to the efforts of the State Department, USAID, and the spotlight put on the issue through the annual [Trafficking in Persons] TIP Report, governments worldwide are also taking action against human trafficking." This "modern-day slavery" has not yet been eradicated, Smith noted, and so "all governments must continuously reinforce their efforts to end this endemic violation of human rights and human dignity."

Just a few days later, the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime, Corrections, and Victims' Rights held a hearing on human trafficking, where officials from the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the Department of Justice, and organizations such as International Justice Mission testified about the scope of trafficking. Sharon Cohn of the International Justice Mission noted that sex tourism fuels the international market in human trafficking and that one quarter of the world's sex tourists are Americans. She urged more prosecutions of Americans who commit sex crimes abroad. As well, a state attorney general from Texas testified to the benefits of the Trafficking Victims Protection Act as an enforcement tool. A Justice Department official testifying before the committee noted further, "there are approximately 122 open trafficking investigations -- nearly twice as many as were open in January 2001."

Finally at a recent Open Forum, the State Department screened the movie "Lilya-4-Ever." The movie, a Swedish film by Lucas Moodysson, follows a 16-year-old girl named Lilya from her home in the former Soviet bloc to Sweden, where she is sold into sexual slavery and repeatedly raped and brutalized. One reviewer, writing in National Review OnLine, called it "the Uncle Tom's Cabin of the anti-trafficking movement" for its unflinching portrayal of the horrors of sex trafficking.