Tougher Laws Needed on Human Traffi

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Subject: Tougher Laws Needed on Human Trafficking [USIA REPORT]

15 September 1999 

Tougher Laws Needed on Human Trafficking 
(U.S. officials and lawmakers affirm need for action)(790)
By Charlene Porter
USIA Staff Writer

Washington -- An estimated one million women and children become the
victims of human trafficking each year. Most of them are forced into
the commercial sex trade, a modern-day form of slavery that bipartisan
lawmakers and U.S. officials rank among the most serious human rights
problems.

U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights and
Labor Harold Koh testified at a hearing September 14 that the
administration is committed to stopping traffickers and protecting
their victims. "That so many around the world would resort to the
exploitation of innocents for personal and monetary gain must be
regarded as one of the most brutal forms of evil we confront today,"
Koh said.

Koh said the State Department's "Country Reports on Human Rights
Practices" identifies at least 60 countries in which trafficking takes
place. Countries of the former Soviet Union and Southeast Asia have
become the countries from which the greatest numbers of victims are
kidnapped.

The State Department officials and the panel of congressional
lawmakers agreed on the goal of curtailing trafficking of persons, but
the hearing revealed that the two branches of government differ on the
best means to reach that end.

Republican Representative Christopher Smith, who chaired the hearing
of the Subcommittee on International Operations and Human Rights, is a
co-sponsor of the Freedom from Sexual Trafficking Act. Saying that
"extraordinary crimes call for extraordinary measures," Smith and his
colleagues have drawn up a bill that would impose a penalty of life
imprisonment, under certain circumstances, for a suspect who has
engaged in the forceful or fraudulent transport of persons across
international boundaries for the purpose of sex acts. In a prepared
statement, Smith said, "This would be not only a just punishment, but
also a powerful deterrent."

Smith's bill, known as H.R. 1356, would also provide a mechanism for
punishment of governments who either support or ignore sexual
trafficking. The bill would "prohibit non-humanitarian U.S. assistance
to governments that continue to be part of the problem." The New
Jersey lawmaker emphasized that the bill grants the president
significant discretion in the decision to use sanctions, but this
provision is not endorsed by the Clinton Administration.

Koh advised against targeting governments when private traffickers are
the real culprits. Further, Theresa Loar, the senior coordinator for
international women's issues at the Department of State, said that
sanctions could be counter-productive. At a time when Secretary of
State Madeline Albright is finding cooperation with many governments
on this issue, Loar said a legal framework for sanctions could make
other governments less willing to acknowledge their problems in
trafficking. "They're more open to working with us without the threat
of sanctions," Loar said.

Koh said the State Department and H.R. 1356 supporters "obviously
agree" on many strategies for improving the U.S. response to
international human trafficking -- the need to improve prosecution,
prevention and protection of victims. But Koh said the State
Department does not endorse some of the bill's specific mandates
regarding new bureaucratic structures to oversee the problem, and new
requirements for tracking occurrence of the crime.

Koh said, "New reporting, new offices and new sanctions are not
solutions in and of themselves, nor will they yield a quick fix for
what is a massive and complex global problem." Koh maintained that
intensified efforts to pursue trafficking in persons should remain the
responsibility of his office.

The lawmakers and the Clinton Administration also differ on the scope
of new legislation to attack human trafficking. Both sides acknowledge
that the victims of trafficking are being exploited not only in the
commercial sex trade, but also as laborers in sweatshops and in forms
of indentured servitude. The two branches of government disagree on
whether both sides of the problem can be addressed in one new law.

Smith said, "The problem with addressing all these evils in one bill
is that they involve a wide range of different situations which may
call for an equally broad range of solutions. So we decided to start
by attacking the most brutal form of trafficking" in the commercial
sex industry.

Koh said human trafficking is a broad problem and legislative
solutions should not be limited to women and children exploited for
sexual purposes. Loar told the subcommittee the level of suffering
endured by the victims of traffickers is severe regardless of what
form their exploitation takes. "Trafficking victims suffer extreme
physical and mental abuse, including rape, torture, starvation,
imprisonment, death threats and physical brutality," Loar said.



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