Press Release
Combating Human Trafficking Event in Washington…Rep. Smith: Fighting Human Trafficking Is Everyone’s BusinessCongressman Chris Smith (NJ-04), Chairman of the House congressional panel that oversees global human rights and author of the landmark law, the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000 (TVPA, Public Law 106-386), was a keynote speaker at an event today co-hosted by the Heritage Foundation and Arizona State University’s McCain Institute. The discussion focused on modern day slavery in the U.S. and around the world, and highlighted the need to rescue women and children from the scourge of human trafficking. Smith is the co-chair and co-founder of the House Human Trafficking Caucus and Chairman of the House subcommittee on global human rights. “Combating modern-day slavery is everybody’s business,” Smith said, noting that major components of TVPA were opposed by the Clinton Administration until overwhelming bipartisan passage in Congress became unavoidable. “We are all in this together. Cooperation and coordination are key to mitigating—and someday ending—the cruelty of human trafficking.” Click here to read Smith’s remarks. Other guests at the event included Cindy McCain of Human Trafficking Advisory Council, The McCain Institute for International Leadership; Holly Burkhalter, Vice President of Government Relations and Advocacy, International Justice Mission; Tom Kelly, Deputy Vice President for the Department of Policy and Evaluation, Millennium Challenge Corporation, and; Olivia Enos, Research Assistant at the Asian Studies Center, at the Heritage Foundation. Smith worked closely with Burkhalter and IJM to craft the Human Trafficking Prioritization Act (H.R. 514) which among other things elevates the Trafficking In Persons Office to a “bureau” with raised status inside the State Department. H.R. 514 passed the House in January and awaits action by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Bills passed the House in January seek to protect runaways, strengthen the child welfare response to trafficking, increase law enforcement resources and criminalize advertising for the commercial exploitation of children. Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy made history by scheduling a dozen new bipartisan anti-human trafficking bills for consideration and passage by the House. All passed, including HR 514, “Human Trafficking Prioritization Act,” and HR 515 , “International Megan’s Law to Prevent Demand for Child Sex Trafficking,” both sponsored by Smith. HR 515 seeks to protect children from sexual predators traveling abroad to perpetrate abuse. “Today, we need to craft additional tools spearheaded by both the government and the private sector to combat human trafficking,” Smith said. “No state or country and few industries are untouched by this pervasive human rights abuse. Traffickers use airlines, trains and buses to move their victims; hotels as a venue to exploit them; and unsuspecting buyers to pay for goods that have been made with raw materials tainted by forced and bonded labor.” According to the International Labor Organization, as cited in the annual report issued by the U.S. State Department’s TIP Office created by Smith’s law, more than 20 million people worldwide are trafficking victims. TVPA funds the toll-free National Human Trafficking Hotline, (888) 373-7888, which connects victims or those concerned about potential victims with assistance and rescue if needed. The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children has estimated that one in seven endangered runaways reported to them in 2013 was likely a trafficking victim. Researchers and non-government organizations (NGOs) estimate 200,000-300,000 American children are at risk of being trafficked, and that there may be as many as 100,000 American children—mostly runaways with an average age of initial enslavement age of 13 years old—exploited in the commercial sex industry each year. The TVPA-created TIP report uses tier rankings set by the U.S. State Department to evaluate whether governments around the world are taking adequate steps to prosecute traffickers, prevent trafficking, and protect victims. Good or bad, the record is laid out for the world to see. TVPA also created the Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons at the State Department. Its annual TIP Report rates nearly every nation in the world. Since the TIP Report’s inception, more than 120 countries have enacted anti-trafficking laws and many countries have taken other steps required to significantly raise their tier rankings—citing the TIP Report as a key factor in their increased anti-trafficking response. At the April 2014 hearing, Congress also examined problems in Europe and other developed countries, such as Japan, Germany, the Netherlands, Brazil, Italy and others. The 2014 report confirms again that Brazil continues to have a major problem with child sex tourism, and recommends that Brazil vigorously investigate and prosecute those who engage in the prostitution of children. In addition to the original 2000 law (P.L. 106-386) which provided for the annual reports, Smith wrote two subsequent anti-trafficking laws (PL 108-193 and PL 109-164) increasing resources for crime prevention and expanding treatment assistance for victims.
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