An international parliamentary assembly of leading lawmakers from 56 countries today adopted a comprehensive resolution, sponsored by Rep. Chris Smith of New Jersey, to increase efforts to prevent child sex exploitation and prosecute the perpetrators.

     Smith, who authored America’s landmark law to combat sex and labor trafficking (the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000), is attending the  Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe Parliamentary Assembly (OSCEPA) along with 11 other members of the US Congress and more than 300 lawmakers from countries in Europe and North America. 

     Smith said that according to the International Labor Organization (ILO) almost two million children are, “cruelly exploited by sex traffickers each year.”

     “That is outrageous and preventable,” he said. “New laws are needed now to protect children and women.”

     Smith said that, “in virtually every child sex trafficking case, the child—if she or he survives the abuse—suffers horrific lifelong physical and psychological consequences.”

     “The victims desperately need our help,” he said during debate on the resolution, “and a major new effort must commence to prevent the exploitation in the first place.”

     Specifically, the Smith resolution calls on each of the 56 countries to:

·         prioritize the prosecution of traffickers and all those who assist them, including classified ad website owners who financially benefit from advertising children for sex trafficking;

·         enact laws so that children advertised and sold for sexual exploitation online can sue the website that financially benefitted from the child’s sexual exploitation; 

·         examine ways in which they can better identify and rescue children advertised for sex on classified ad websites; 

·         work with the private sector on requiring and implementing new age-verification technologies for access to pornographic websites, thus preventing child exploitation; 

·         work with social media platforms on protecting children from pornographic content and intentional grooming by traffickers for commercial sexual exploitation; and

·         train border officials, law enforcement officials, judges, prosecutors, immigration and other relevant officials to identify and combat use of the internet and other information and communication technologies (ICTs) for committing trafficking crimes.

     At twelve previous conferences, Smith—who serves as the Special Representative on combatting human trafficking for the OSCEPA—has sponsored twelve successful resolutions, including the first in 1999 in St. Petersburg, Russia.

     Smith, currently the Co-Chair of the U.S. Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe (CSCE), has authored four major U.S. laws to fight trafficking: the Trafficking Victims Protection Act (P.L. 106-386), the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act (P.L. 108-193), the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act of 2005 (P.L. 109-164) and the International Megan’s Law (P.L. 114-119).

     In mid-July, the U.S. House of Representatives will vote on a new bill he has introduced to fight trafficking, the “Frederick Douglass Trafficking Victims Prevention and Protection Reauthorization Act.”

     The OSCE is an international organization that focuses on a wide range of security-related concerns, including arms control, confidence- and security-building measures, human rights, national minorities, democratization, policing strategies, counter-terrorism and economic and environmental activities. All participating States enjoy equal status.

     In addition to Smith’s efforts on human trafficking, he sponsored and passed an amendment to help fight the scourge of anti-Semitism and, along with Sen. Roger Wicker (R-MS), met with Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko to discuss improvements for the people of Belarus. 

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