Rep. Smith's Trafficking Victims Protection Act to Become Law;
Soon-to-Be Law Strengthens and Expands Human Trafficking Laws, Combats Domestic Trafficking, Targets Sex Trade Industry
12/22/2005 10:28:00 AM
To: National and State Desks
WASHINGTON, Dec. 22 /U.S. Newswire/ -- In a bipartisan vote, the Senate overwhelmingly passed Rep. Chris Smith's (R-N.J.) Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act (TVPRA) of 2005 (HR 972), legislation that strengthens the nation's current trafficking law (also authored by Smith in 2000) and authorizes new funds for investigation and prosecution of domestic trafficking within the United States. Smith has had four major bills pass through Congress in its final weeks, putting him at the top of the most active and successful legislators in the United States.
The TVPRA reinforces that the United States will continue to lead the global battle against modern-day human slavery. According to estimates by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), the bill will provide $361 million over the next two years to combat trafficking. President Bush will sign the legislation, making it the third Smith-authored human trafficking law.
"With this new law, the United States assumed a leadership role in combating the modern day slavery known as human trafficking," said Smith, who was the author of that landmark trafficking law (Public Law 106-386). "Make no mistake, this legislation is about protecting women, since the majority of the victims of this abhorrent crime are young girls and women."
"The 2005 Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act provides law enforcement with the necessary tools to continue the liberation the unfortunate women and children who are forced into this horror."
Each year, an estimated 600,000 to 800,000 people are trafficked across international borders. It is estimated that millions more are trafficked internally within the borders of countries. In the past four years, twice as many people in the United States have been prosecuted and convicted for trafficking than in the prior four-year period. Worldwide, more than 3,000 traffickers were convicted last year -- an increase from the previous year. These numbers reflect an increasing number of countries acquiring the laws necessary to combat trafficking and having the political will to implement those laws.
Smith's bill reauthorizes and expands appropriations for anti-trafficking programs in the United States and abroad and offers solutions to specific scenarios where additional initiatives are needed to combat trafficking problems, such as in peacekeeping missions. For the first time, programs geared toward reducing the demand for commercial sex in the United States and preventing human trafficking of U.S. citizens within our own borders are authorized, and new funding will be provided to the Federal Bureau of Investigation to combat both domestic and international trafficking.
Smith worked with Rep. James Sensenbrenner (R-Wis.) and Rep. Deborah Pryce (R-Ohio) to craft an amendment creating a $25 million grant program for local law enforcement to investigate and prosecute human trafficking (and related offenses) and includes initiatives to attack the demand for prostitution, which fuels sex trafficking.
The TVPRA, in its entirety, enables prosecution in the United States of trafficking offenses committed by federal employees and contractors and amends the United States Code to strengthen the use of money laundering, racketeering and civil and criminal forfeiture statutes against traffickers. In addition, the Department of Justice is directed to conduct a biennial analysis of trafficking and commercial sex acts statistics inside the United States.
"With a crime as abhorrent as human trafficking, it is essential that the United States takes the lead and that includes within our own borders," said Smith, whose original law was recently the focus of a Lifetime miniseries starring Mira Sorvino titled "Human Trafficking." "We must work to target the criminals -- slaveholders -- who force these young children and women into unimaginable horrors."
Smith's bill also addressed the American and foreign victims of human trafficking and includes provisions to help reintegrate them to a normal life. It authorizes a grants program for non-governmental organization victim service providers, establishes programs for residential rehabilitation facilities and promotes access to information about federally funded services for victims.
"The 2005 Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act strengthens and expands our efforts and allows law enforcement to continue to liberate the women and children who are forced and coerced into slavery," said Smith, who has fought for human and victims rights since coming to Congress. "With this new law, the victims of this terrible crime know they are not forgotten."
HR 972 – Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act:
Prevention of International Trafficking In Persons
-- Requires U.S. assistance programs for post-conflict and humanitarian emergencies to include anti-trafficking measures.
-- Provides U.S. courts jurisdiction over federal government employees and contractors for trafficking offenses committed abroad.
-- Expands the ability to prosecute traffickers for violations of money laundering, racketeering, and civil and criminal forfeiture statutes.
-- Requires that the State Department include in the annual Trafficking in Persons Report information on the steps taken by international organizations (UN, OSCE, NATO) to prevent involvement of personnel with trafficking.
-- Requires U.S. assistance programs for post-conflict and humanitarian emergencies to include anti-trafficking measures.
Prevention of Domestic Trafficking In Persons
-- Requires the Attorney General to study and report to Congress on the prevalence of severe forms of trafficking and sex trafficking in the United States and the approach to combating these crimes by law enforcement.
-- Terminates all government grants, contracts and cooperative agreements with contractors that engage in trafficking in person or procure a commercial sex act during the period in which the grant is in effect.
-- Establishes a grants program through the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to assist American citizens and nationals who are victims of human trafficking and directs HHS to establish a program to create residential treatment facilities for juveniles subjected to trafficking.
-- Establishes a grants program for states and local law enforcement totaling $50 million in 2006 and 2007 to investigate and prosecute acts of trafficking in persons and criminals that purchase a commercial sex act within the United States.
For additional information about Rep. Chris Smith and his efforts on behalf of global human rights, please visit www.house.gov/chrissmith/.
www.usnewswire.com/
/© 2005 U.S. Newswire 202-347-2770/
Soon-to-Be Law Strengthens and Expands Human Trafficking Laws, Combats Domestic Trafficking, Targets Sex Trade Industry
12/22/2005 10:28:00 AM
To: National and State Desks
WASHINGTON, Dec. 22 /U.S. Newswire/ -- In a bipartisan vote, the Senate overwhelmingly passed Rep. Chris Smith's (R-N.J.) Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act (TVPRA) of 2005 (HR 972), legislation that strengthens the nation's current trafficking law (also authored by Smith in 2000) and authorizes new funds for investigation and prosecution of domestic trafficking within the United States. Smith has had four major bills pass through Congress in its final weeks, putting him at the top of the most active and successful legislators in the United States.
The TVPRA reinforces that the United States will continue to lead the global battle against modern-day human slavery. According to estimates by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), the bill will provide $361 million over the next two years to combat trafficking. President Bush will sign the legislation, making it the third Smith-authored human trafficking law.
"With this new law, the United States assumed a leadership role in combating the modern day slavery known as human trafficking," said Smith, who was the author of that landmark trafficking law (Public Law 106-386). "Make no mistake, this legislation is about protecting women, since the majority of the victims of this abhorrent crime are young girls and women."
"The 2005 Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act provides law enforcement with the necessary tools to continue the liberation the unfortunate women and children who are forced into this horror."
Each year, an estimated 600,000 to 800,000 people are trafficked across international borders. It is estimated that millions more are trafficked internally within the borders of countries. In the past four years, twice as many people in the United States have been prosecuted and convicted for trafficking than in the prior four-year period. Worldwide, more than 3,000 traffickers were convicted last year -- an increase from the previous year. These numbers reflect an increasing number of countries acquiring the laws necessary to combat trafficking and having the political will to implement those laws.
Smith's bill reauthorizes and expands appropriations for anti-trafficking programs in the United States and abroad and offers solutions to specific scenarios where additional initiatives are needed to combat trafficking problems, such as in peacekeeping missions. For the first time, programs geared toward reducing the demand for commercial sex in the United States and preventing human trafficking of U.S. citizens within our own borders are authorized, and new funding will be provided to the Federal Bureau of Investigation to combat both domestic and international trafficking.
Smith worked with Rep. James Sensenbrenner (R-Wis.) and Rep. Deborah Pryce (R-Ohio) to craft an amendment creating a $25 million grant program for local law enforcement to investigate and prosecute human trafficking (and related offenses) and includes initiatives to attack the demand for prostitution, which fuels sex trafficking.
The TVPRA, in its entirety, enables prosecution in the United States of trafficking offenses committed by federal employees and contractors and amends the United States Code to strengthen the use of money laundering, racketeering and civil and criminal forfeiture statutes against traffickers. In addition, the Department of Justice is directed to conduct a biennial analysis of trafficking and commercial sex acts statistics inside the United States.
"With a crime as abhorrent as human trafficking, it is essential that the United States takes the lead and that includes within our own borders," said Smith, whose original law was recently the focus of a Lifetime miniseries starring Mira Sorvino titled "Human Trafficking." "We must work to target the criminals -- slaveholders -- who force these young children and women into unimaginable horrors."
Smith's bill also addressed the American and foreign victims of human trafficking and includes provisions to help reintegrate them to a normal life. It authorizes a grants program for non-governmental organization victim service providers, establishes programs for residential rehabilitation facilities and promotes access to information about federally funded services for victims.
"The 2005 Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act strengthens and expands our efforts and allows law enforcement to continue to liberate the women and children who are forced and coerced into slavery," said Smith, who has fought for human and victims rights since coming to Congress. "With this new law, the victims of this terrible crime know they are not forgotten."
HR 972 – Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act:
Prevention of International Trafficking In Persons
-- Requires U.S. assistance programs for post-conflict and humanitarian emergencies to include anti-trafficking measures.
-- Provides U.S. courts jurisdiction over federal government employees and contractors for trafficking offenses committed abroad.
-- Expands the ability to prosecute traffickers for violations of money laundering, racketeering, and civil and criminal forfeiture statutes.
-- Requires that the State Department include in the annual Trafficking in Persons Report information on the steps taken by international organizations (UN, OSCE, NATO) to prevent involvement of personnel with trafficking.
-- Requires U.S. assistance programs for post-conflict and humanitarian emergencies to include anti-trafficking measures.
Prevention of Domestic Trafficking In Persons
-- Requires the Attorney General to study and report to Congress on the prevalence of severe forms of trafficking and sex trafficking in the United States and the approach to combating these crimes by law enforcement.
-- Terminates all government grants, contracts and cooperative agreements with contractors that engage in trafficking in person or procure a commercial sex act during the period in which the grant is in effect.
-- Establishes a grants program through the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to assist American citizens and nationals who are victims of human trafficking and directs HHS to establish a program to create residential treatment facilities for juveniles subjected to trafficking.
-- Establishes a grants program for states and local law enforcement totaling $50 million in 2006 and 2007 to investigate and prosecute acts of trafficking in persons and criminals that purchase a commercial sex act within the United States.
For additional information about Rep. Chris Smith and his efforts on behalf of global human rights, please visit www.house.gov/chrissmith/.
www.usnewswire.com/
/© 2005 U.S. Newswire 202-347-2770/
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The Slavery of Prostitution
Thu, December 22, 2005 - 12:55 PM
December 20, 2005
The Slavery of Prostitution
To the Editor [New York Times]:
Re "A New Law in Tijuana Regulates the Oldest Profession" (news article, Dec. 13): A more appropriate term for prostitution would be "the oldest oppression."
The reality for women and children used in prostitution is horrifying. A nine-country study published in The Journal of Trauma Practice found that 71 percent of those used in prostitution were physically assaulted, 63 percent were raped, 89 percent wanted to escape and 68 percent met the criteria for post-traumatic stress disorder.
In addition to being inherently harmful and dehumanizing, prostitution and related activities fuel the modern-day slavery known as sex trafficking. What other "profession" creates such abuse and devastation?
While some attempts to regulate prostitution may be well intentioned, we should not be focusing on regulation of prostitution, but rather on abolition of slavery.
Apologists for the trans-Atlantic slave trade of yesteryear advocated for better ventilation and mattresses on ships for slaves, but all the regulation in the world would not have changed the fact that people used as slaves deserved freedom. The women and children of today deserve freedom, too.
John R. Miller
Washington, Dec. 15, 2005
www.nytimes.com/2005/12/20...titute.html
www.nytimes.com/2005/12/13...itutes.html
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It always surprises me how trafficking and ALL forms of prostitution are mixed up and lumped into the same category. I hope that the law makers differentiate between those who see prostitution as a "free choice (???)" and a "liberated expression of their female sexuality (???:-/...I do have questions here...)" and those who are forced into this. Of course, one would hope that the liberal forces that are into advocating the "legalization of prostitution would also speak up against trafficking and protect the victims. After all they maybe in contact indirectly with that sort of thing via escort review boards. The majority of people who in favor of prostitution often seem just a wee bit too self-serving for my taste, and that does not help their cause. One would think that self-serving attitudes causes suspicion and distrust among the general population. Creating a humanitarian and helpful attitude towards the victims of sex-slavery could be exremely helpful for those supposingly "sex-positive" types out there.
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Looking into Human trafficking issues one actutally has to be afraid of being lumped into all these conservative forces (argghh... ). Anway, I personally can't understand why the liberals are not speaking out more against sexual slavery or slavery in general. Sometimes it appears as if they don't care. The freedom of speech, and especially the freedom of porn and kink, is all that the vast majority of liberal individuals seem to have on their minds. This is all well and good but I have to ask myself what are these issues worth in comparison to the suffering of sex-trafficked victims? To me these self-serving individuals are not liberals if they don't care. They seem indeed narrow-minded and conservative and even inherently fascist in my limited vision. Maybe some just wear the mask of being a cool, freedom loving liberal but underneath they are just totally narcissistic.
If it comes down to it, people who have a cold heart just don't care for these issues regardless of being liberal or conservative. Ht is an issue which should interest one and all.
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Re: The Slavery of Prostitution
Fri, January 13, 2006 - 9:51 AMI totally agree. However the powers that be are more inclined to disregard "sex-positive individuals" as non-entities because they go against their religious sensibility. Thus, i honestly would expect them to be as embracing as you are.
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