Congress Should Pass the Trafficing Victims Protection Act
On the 3rd of October 2008, an important film on a very serious and devastating problem will open in selected theaters across the country. The film is titled "Call and Response" (http://www.callandresponse.com) and the subject of the film is modern human slavery, which holds captive an estimated 2.7 million sex and labor slaves across the globe. You have heard of narcotrafficking and the arms trade, but right up there with the drug and gun rackets is the global slave market. Victims are targeted and taken for many reasons: because they are poor, because they are in debt, or simply because they are in the wrong place at the wrong time. They work in brothels, in factories, on farms, and anywhere else where their masters can exploit their labor for cash.
The film incorporates musical performances, interviews with luminaries such as Madeleine Albright and activist/actress Julia Ormond, plus cold, hard facts. It calls for an abolitionist movement for the 21st century, and for a public commitment to ending modern slavery. Here in the United States, human trafficking is a cause in need of more and louder advocates. The Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TVPA) is currently up for renewal. It passed the House, but is currently bogged down in the Senate (see http://www.polarisproject.org/ for more information). The bill (H.R. 3887 introduced by Rep. Tom Lantos (D-CA) and S. 3061 introduced by Senator Joseph Biden) outlines protections for victims and makes human trafficking a federal crime, establishing standards for proof and prosecution.
This is a human rights issue of monumental proportion. About 80% of the slaves are women (see https://www.sharedhope.org/). 50% of all trafficking victims are children. These women and children come from Asia, Africa, the Middle East, Latin America, Europe, and yes, the United States. They are most often bound for the commercial sex industry, where their traffickers use them to make a tidy profit until the women die. In fact, trafficking in slaves is now the second most profitable criminal enterprise in the world, and the fastest-growing. Unless we step in and speak up for these women and children, some of whom are literally in chains, their situation is not going to get any better. We need Congress to reauthorize the TVPA, and we need the public to take heed of this issue.
For more information and for action suggestions, see:
Polaris Project, http://actioncenter.polarisproject.org/;
Free the Slaves, http://www.freetheslaves.net/;
Shared Hope, https://www.sharedhope.org/;
International Justice Mission, http://www.ijm.org/;
The Center for Women Policy Studies, http://www.centerwomenpolicy.org/.
This piece was written by Terra Gearhart-Serna, WLF intern and 2nd year law student at Yale Law School, with assistance from Sharon Grosfeld, WLF Executive Director.
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