Summary:

The United States is urging all nations of the world to take additional steps to fight human trafficking.

Speaking February 27 in Bali, Indonesia at an international conference on human smuggling and trafficking, Ambassador Nancy Ely-Raphel urged governments to become parties to and implement international conventions and protocols to fight the scourge of human trafficking. These include:

-- The UN Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children, supplementing the U.N. Convention against Transnational Organized Crime;

-- The International Labor Organization Convention 182 concerning the Prohibition and Immediate Action for the Elimination of the Worst Forms of Child Labor, and

-- The Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the Sale of Children, Child Prostitution and Child Pornography.

Ely-Raphel, the senior advisor to the Secretary of State on trafficking in persons and director of the State Department's office to combat trafficking in persons, noted that the State Department has "vigorously supported approximately 100 global anti-trafficking programs or initiatives in over 40 countries."

Within its own borders, the United States has bolstered its own efforts to prosecute traffickers, protect victims and prevent future trafficking, Ely-Raphel said.

She noted that the State Department, along with a nongovernmental organization, is developing a regional informational website -- humantrafficking.org -- to be available this summer.

The "global disgrace" of human trafficking will be eradicated only if nations work together, Ely-Raphel said.

The governments of Indonesia and Australia hosted the conference.

Following is the text of Ely-Raphel's remarks, as prepared for delivery:

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U.S. Statement on Trafficking in Persons for the Regional Ministerial Conference

I would like to thank the governments of Indonesia and Australia for coordinating this important ministerial conference on smuggling and trafficking of persons. We are gratified to see so many concerned nations working together to address these pressing issues.

Trafficking in persons is a global problem, which involves the denial of human rights, transnational crime, often illegal migration, the degradation of public health, and the denial of economic opportunity. Solving this problem and bringing relief to its many victims is only possible through cooperative efforts. Cooperation must unite governments and non-governmental organizations. Destination countries must work with transit and source countries to first reduce the volume of trafficking; and source countries must work not only to banish trafficking, but to help with the reintegration of trafficked victims back into their home society.

In East Asia alone, over 225,000 women and children are trafficked each year, mostly for sexual exploitation or slave-like labor, within the region as well as to other parts of the world.

Traffickers take advantage of the demand for cheap, unprotected labor and the promotion of sex tourism. Many victims fall prey to traffickers because they seek a better life or enhanced economic opportunities. They are, therefore, vulnerable to false promises of good jobs and higher wages.

In some countries, social or cultural practices contribute to trafficking, such as the low valuation of women and girls in society and the practice of poor parents giving care of their children to more affluent friends or relatives. Harmful stereotypes of women as property, commodities, servants, and sexual objects across cultures contribute to the problem. Some parents sell their children, not merely for money, but in the hope that their children will escape the bondage of poverty and move to a city, country or continent where they can begin a better life. Sadly, the reverse too often occurs. They escape one bondage to be chained by another.

Trafficking can be difficult to differentiate from smuggling migrants for profit -- a despicable trade in itself -- especially in transit countries. The mere facilitation of a victim's illegal entry into a country is not considered trafficking. Only if smuggling involves procuring the person for the purposes of labor or sexual exploitation through the use of force, fraud, or coercion is it considered trafficking.

The U.S. is both a transit and destination country, with an estimated 45,000 -- 50,000 trafficking victims annually. The Victims of Trafficking and Violence Protection Act of 2000 was passed by the U.S. Congress to enhance pre-existing criminal penalties, afford new protections to trafficking victims, and make available certain benefits and services to victims of severe forms of trafficking. The legislation also established a Cabinet-level federal interagency task force to insure coordination among the various U.S. government agencies in anti-trafficking in persons initiatives, and created federal programs to provide services to trafficking victims. The Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons at the Department of State was created to coordinate and carry out these efforts.

The U.S. Department of State has vigorously supported approximately 100 global anti-trafficking programs or initiatives in over 40 countries, and in so doing has demonstrated its commitment to bolstering efforts to prosecute traffickers, protect victims, and to prevent future trafficking.

Nevertheless, the United States still has much more to do, both at home and abroad.

As a first step, all of our individual governments should consider becoming parties to and implementing the international conventions and protocols to fight trafficking, namely, they include:

-- The UN Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children, supplementing the U.N. Convention against Transnational Organized Crime;

-- The International Labor Organization Convention 182 concerning the Prohibition and Immediate Action for the Elimination of the Worst Forms of Child Labor, and

-- The Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the Sale of Children, Child Prostitution and Child Pornography

Additionally, our governments should create and implement national anti-trafficking strategies, to encompass the highest levels of interagency governmental participation to address the prevention of trafficking, the protection of victims, and the prosecution of traffickers. Such strategies must include appropriately severe sanctions against any public officials who assist traffickers through corruption or collusion.

Finally, cooperative fora such as this one should continue so that regional partners can identify the most effective and efficient ways to work together to fight trafficking. While each of us must work within our countries to meet the threat of trafficking and to obliterate its evils, we will only succeed in eradicating this global disgrace to our common humanity if we work together. As a small step in assisting in this regional effort, the U.S. Department of State is working with an NGO (non-governmental organization) to create a regional informational website to be available to you in your work by this summer. It will be called humantrafficking.org and I urge you to begin to use it as soon as it is on the Internet. Thank you.

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