*EPF504 03/31/00
Transcript: Conference Identifies Ways to Combat Human Trafficking
(U.S. sees meeting as first in series of regional approaches) (5420)

The Asian Regional Initiative Against Trafficking in Women and Children (ARIAT) has produced a regional action plan after three-days of meetings in Manila.

Speaking at a press conference March 31, Ralph Boyce, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs, said part of the effort would include that nations enact legislation that would apply new penalties for the traffickers.

"This ARIAT meeting and its outcomes," Boyce said, "represent the first in what we hope will be a series of practical, regional approaches to combating trafficking."

The lucrative criminal activity of human trafficking currently has very few international strictures to prevent it, Boyce said. The goal is to increase penalties and make trafficking more dangerous, he said.

"Some countries have legislation prohibiting this kind of activity but are not enforcing it," Boyce said. "Others don't yet have the legislation and need to see the models some of the partner countries here at the ARIAT have.

"This function brought together 20 countries who have a variety of different legal strictures in place, either already working or in place but not working, or not in place at all. And the idea was a combination of working within the individual countries, depending on their own legal frameworks, to try to learn best practices, lessons learned, etc., from others, and also to try to develop a kind of a transnational interaction using the international organizations -- working through Interpol and others -- to try to bring this type of criminal activity up to receive the same sort of attention that drugs and guns have been receiving for some time now."

Following is a transcript of the press conference:

(begin transcript)

TRANSCRIPT OF THE CONCLUDING PRESS CONFERENCE ON THE
ASIAN REGIONAL INITIATIVE AGAINST TRAFFICKING IN WOMEN AND CHILDREN

MARCH 31, 2000
HERITAGE HOTEL
MANILA, THE PHILIPPINES

ROSARIO MANALO, PHILIPPINES UNDER SECRETARY OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS
FOR INTERNATIONAL ECONOMIC RELATIONS

RALPH L. BOYCE, DEPUTY ASSISTANT SECRETARY OF STATE
FOR EAST ASIAN AND PACIFIC AFFAIRS

ANITA L. BOTTI, DEPUTY DIRECTOR OF THE PRESIDENT'S INTER-AGENCY COUNCIL
ON WOMEN

MANALO: Thank you, thank you very much. Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen of the press and of the media. After three days of hard work, of sharing and discussing national experiences and lessons, best practices and success stories, the ARIAT Meeting comes to a close with a regional action plan against trafficking in persons, especially women and children.

The regional action plan is -- we, the chairpersons are proud to say -- practical and doable so that the region and the globe will benefit from the concrete actions which the participants will bring home with them.

The efforts of the 21 national delegations, 20 multilateral organizations (which include international organizations, funding institutions, and foundations) and active participation from non-governmental agencies, will translate into more coordinated and comprehensive, well-armed regional and global efforts to combat the egregious human rights violation which is the trafficking in persons, particularly women and innocent children.

For my part, on behalf of the millions of Filipinos who are victims and are potential victims of trafficking, I feel very fulfilled that ARIAT has successfully come up with this regional action plan which seeks to identify ways and means to address the prevention, protection, prosecution, repatriation and reintegration of the victims of trafficking.

In closing, I would like to extend my thanks to my co-chairpersons from the United States as well as all the participants in this meeting.

BOYCE: First of all, on behalf of our delegation and I think on behalf of all the delegations, I want to thank the host government of the Philippines for not just the last three days of tremendous support and hospitality but the months and months of preparation that have gone into this initiative which had its origins back in July in Singapore at the annual ASEAN Post Ministerial Meetings. And in particular, I want to thank our esteemed chairperson, Undersecretary Manalo, who was a tremendous leader in helping forge the results that we are going to talk about now.

The meeting, I think, represents an historical step forward in the global efforts to help the one million women and children who every year are shipped like drugs, like commodities, across national lines and sold into what has to be considered a form of modern-day slavery.

This ARIAT meeting and its outcomes represent the first in what we hope will be a series of practical, regional approaches to combating trafficking.

The more we set down specifics and define our cooperative strategies for combating trafficking, and the more we are able to come up with concrete, practical programs, the better prepared we'll be to put meat to the rhetoric and to find the resources that we are going to need to support these endeavors.

This is what we have done here in Manila. Through a collegial and consultative process, integrating the views and expertise of not just governments but also NGOs and international organizations, we have set forth common goals and strategies for action.

There were a full afternoon and morning of very dynamic workshop sessions. These sessions were at the heart of this meeting and were where we developed the practical approaches and specific program ideas for ending this modern day scourge.

Many of the project initiatives, if implemented, will build on already existing mechanisms for combating trafficking in this region.

As for the government of the United States, it is our sincerest hope that the countries and the economies who have participated in ARIAT will now implement wherever possible the plan of action and use the program ideas that the meeting generated to cooperate and coordinate with one another and with civil society, and with their own various inter-agency processes at the national, the regional, the sub-regional, the international -- at all levels.

We look forward to the support of the international community and international organizations and NGOs for this action plan that the ARIAT has set forth.

As for the United States, we're prepared to continue our support for this sort of regional cooperation begun here in Manila at the ARIAT. We look forward to the continuation and the implementation of the programs begun here.

Thank you.

MODERATOR: Thank you both very much. Now I believe the panel is prepared to take your questions. Please state your name and your affiliation.

Q: Hugh Williamson from the Financial Times newspaper. We just received a copy of the action plan. Perhaps you could -- it obviously goes into some detail on particular areas -- could you highlight what you each think are the top priorities of the elements of the action plan? There are many areas covered. We would be keen to work out what you think are the main achievements of the meeting.

MANALO: First, of course, I'd like you to know that this is not the only outcome. There are four documents: the Chairperson's statement; the ARIAT regional action plan, and attached to that is the statement from the international organizations; as well as the outputs of the workshops that took place. There were six of them.

So, now going back to your question about the ARIAT regional action plan. You're asking us which is the priority. All the four areas are priorities to us, equally treated, because we have an approach that we call integrated and comprehensive, and you cannot give particular emphasis or focus on just one without giving the equal amount of focus on the four other areas. So everything in there is a priority. It is now up to each national delegation to select there how to go about it. But everything is to be focused equally. We hope this is how it will be approached by everybody because that is our intention.

Q: Gabby Tabunar, CBS News. Good afternoon. I'd like to know how you would go about cooperating with international organizations and or governments. Don't you need to have a legal framework in order to combat these incidences, like passing or renewing laws in the different countries?

MANALO: Thank you. I would say that the regional plan of action is a policy framework. And within that policy framework, we anticipate that there will be national frameworks, national plans of action within the regional plan of action. And it is expected that within the national plans, each of the countries would look into their legal structures if they are available, improve on them, and if they do not exist, do something about creating laws that will help us combat trafficking.

Q: May I ask your comments on specific examples? Item: Groups in foreign countries have allied themselves with people in different countries. Let's specify the United States and the Philippines. They give out albums showing pictures of these women and they even use the internet. And they have contacts here in the Philippines who do their bidding, try to contact families and women here, and the traffic starts from there. What are the steps taken to remedy this?

BOYCE: I think if you take a look through the action plan, there's a number of places where we put down either endeavor to enact legislation that would apply new penalties for the traffickers. In our opening comments, you may recall, we pointed out that this is a form of transnational crime that currently has almost -- it is all high side for the traffickers. In other words, there are very few international strictures that stop the activity; the profits are high, the costs are relatively low. It is a relatively low-risk operation. And so, one of the foci, if you will, of the workshops and of the various elements of the action plan is to increase the penalties, make it more dangerous.

Some countries have legislation prohibiting this kind of activity but are not enforcing it. Others don't yet have the legislation and need to see the models some of the partner countries here at the ARIAT have. This function brought together 20 countries who have a variety of different legal strictures in place, either already working or in place but not working, or not in place at all. And the idea was a combination of working within the individual countries, depending on their own legal frameworks, to try to learn best practices, lessons learned, etc. from others, and also to try to develop a kind of a transnational interaction using the international organizations -- working through Interpol and others -- to try to bring this type of criminal activity up to receive the same sort of attention that drugs and guns have been receiving for some time now.

We are at the front end of a process, and what it is designed to do is to make the penalties for the perpetrators such that it not be such an inviting target to enter into as a form of international commerce.

Q: Thank you. Just one brief question to follow that up. Between now and the next big conference that you'll have, are there any working committees -- action committees -- to follow up what you have talked about?

BOTTI: I don't know if there are formal committees, but I do know in talking with the respective delegations and the international organizations that what will probably happen -- as was mentioned by Under Secretary Manalo -- is that the countries now go back to their homes and are armed with information.

It is important to point out that you have at this meeting -- NGOs, government representatives, international representatives, and private sector representatives, all taking about these four areas that have been mentioned. To your point of trying to work collectively, they have all been engaged in developing the plan of action and also, in turn, concrete suggestions through the workshops.

In talking with the delegations, my understanding is that they will -- certainly at the national level and probably regionally, and certainly internationally -- as the case presents itself, integrate their ideas. An idea that was just discussed with one country is that they may themselves choose to take one aspect and invite two or three countries over and try to implement this. It is a dynamic process, and I think that there are some statements about follow-up. It does not necessarily hinge on a next conference. If we have to wait for that, I think that would be too bad. It is very much in place. Thank you.

MANALO: May I add that nowadays, we do have computers, and we can do follow-ups by communicating through the internet. We envision in this follow-up a progress review, an assessment. Perhaps we could work up schemes or models in various areas, and from there, within a period of -- let's say hopefully between now and ten months -- see how this is operating. And in that way we could have an incremental process of seeing how we can carry on in concrete action every component of the regional plan of action.

Q: Good afternoon. Martin Crisostomo from RPN News. I'd like to follow up your previous statement about the internet because it is one of the vital tools used in this human trafficking. Have you discussed anything with regards to that -- solutions?

MANALO: Yes, of course we did. In the regional plan of action, it is in the overarching area one, under information data. And it reads, "Consider the development of trafficking-specific inter/intranet sites." The next one, too. The next bullet: "Acknowledge the misuse of the internet by traffickers and develop effective counter strategies."

So, you see, the workshops took this up. So did the plenary session.

Q: But are there any recommended solutions?

MANALO: The solutions will have to be brought forward by the actors themselves.

Q: In the statement paper you have mentioned that the primary root cause of trafficking is poverty. So, do we mean that millions of people in third world countries are all engaged in this kind of activity? Or shall we say that in some cases, but not all? We can find prostitution among rich countries as well. You say the primary root cause is poverty, and I don't think it is absolutely poverty.

BOTTI: In looking at this, across the world, I will agree with you that it is more than poverty. I do think, though, when you look at what makes a human being vulnerable what we are finding is that most often it is the lack of alternatives, economically.

We are looking, too, and recognizing that it is more and more the case that in situations of war or disruption -- and this is particularly in Europe, in Kosovo -- that women and children particularly are vulnerable.

Clearly, one could argue that it is not only issues of poverty. But it is the lack of income for them and the displacement, the displaced situation that they find themselves in. But on balance, I think the term is used in the sense that it is the primary cause worldwide. But that is not to discredit or disclaim what you've just said.

Q: I think if you mention such a statement you give a good excuse to the people who are engaged in this kind of activity. But if you involve other issues, I mean factors -- such as lack of values, education, ignorance -- all those things, I think should be included, not only poverty.

BOTTI: Absolutely. And if you go to the rest of the text, the regional plan of action, that is detailed, specifically. All the items that you just spoke of are there in detail. And moreover, in the workshops were addressed in details. So we agree with you. I think the statement was made as a summary.

Q: I'm Malou Talosig of Today newspaper. What are the challenges that the ARIAT participants have identified in combating the trafficking of women and children? And how would you distinguish between trafficking and genuine migration of women and children?

MANALO: For the challenges, you'll find them all over the documents. They are everywhere there. You just have to read them through. And the second question you asked, how do you distinguish between trafficking and migration.

You know, we now focused mainly on trafficking, really zeroed in on trafficking and did not discuss general migration. Just trafficking as a transnational crime and a violation of human rights, without getting into the polemics and the debate of general migration. But that it occurs as a consequence of migration, or it does come up from some flows of migration-that is a given. That truly is a given; we don't have to debate it.

I was not a part of the Bangkok Declaration process, but I understand that the Bangkok Declaration took up the issue of migration, and from the Bangkok Declaration -- we have announced it -- we are building on that, forward.

Q: Can I just follow up on that? Do you think in trying to come up with solutions to combat trafficking in women and children there is also a risk in clamping down on the migration of women and children?

BOTTI: That is a very good question, because that risk is always there. And I am most familiar with it when you look at opening up the borders from the former Soviet Union. Free migration -- free and legal migration -- is important to have around the world. One of the ways we have approached this issue and its solution is to deal with the four areas that were outlined -- you have to deal with them equally, so that the law enforcement aspect will not override the other areas. It is not interpreted that it will be solved if you close the borders. It is much more complicated than that. And clearly, closing the borders is not the answer. It is much more involved in buying and selling of individuals and trying to work on solutions to prevent that from happening in the beginning.

Q: I note in the ARIAT plan of action a great emphasis on national, regional, and governmental strategies to combat the issue of trafficking in women. But I see nothing on the tackling of the issue -- taking the bull by the horns -- and that is the role of men in perpetuating what we call modern day slavery. Was patriarchy as a major contributor to trafficking of human bodies even taken up in the workshops?

BOYCE: I apologize that we seem to be continuing to draw your attention back to reading of the document. And there are an awful lot of materials we have just given to you, so obviously you haven't had a chance to digest it. But one of the four Ps is prosecution and that obviously goes directly to the heart of your question, which is those who are perpetrating.

Just now we had a discussion about poverty and that being a focus of why and how the situation is created that young women and children are put into these desperate straits where they are able to be lured or taken advantage of because of their terrible economic situation. That is sort of the supply side if you will.

The other side of it is making it legally and criminally less easy, in fact, difficult, as difficult as possible for the people who are doing the trafficking and who are preying on these victims of poor economic situation who are really quite innocent. And that's the side where we've got to beef up the criminal penalties and make the disincentives greater for those regardless of their gender. But obviously we know what the heart of your question is, who are perpetuating this terrible practice.

MANALO: I think what my friend is trying to point out is the masculine attitude towards women, or the status that women enjoy in certain societies, as well as children. How are they considered? Are they looked to as chattel? Are they given respect and dignity as human beings? I think that is the question you have raised with us in a patriarchal system, one that is conducive towards getting women and children trafficked because you've traced the root to the sociological and anthropological structure of a society. That's the question you have raised, right?

That has been addressed likewise in the workshops. Truly, the nature of society, the way they look at human beings within that society, does affect the positive or the negative kind of action that will be taken by the institutions managing or bringing forward either positive or negative societies. But I cannot just draw a conclusion that because it is a patriarchal society, that patriarchal society is completely unhealthy towards women's interests. It may not be so. It could be patriarchal in certain senses, but still they do have certain standards and values that uphold women equally with them, but yet they are patriarchal in a certain sense the way they define it. But not to the extent that they may be making out of the women and children what I would call chattel, but it could be the other way around in other societies.

So, in this discussion, the workshops or the experts or the participants could very well analyze which are the societies, what causes this kind of treatment, and how are we going to manage and overcome this so that they will not be involved in the trafficking of women and children. But it is very difficult to discuss in one three-day workshop. It has got to be studied again by the national participants, meaning the member states to see how this is really affecting the management and the combat of trafficking of women and children. It is a very complex question. It calls for research. It calls for analysis, and it cannot be answered just like that in a workshop. But that there is need to study it has been pointed out. Thank you.

Q: I'm John McLain from the BBC. Your plan of action is full of fine words such as human rights, legislative framework, rule of law. Isn't it precisely the countries where there's little respect for human rights, a weak rule of law, that are the main sources of these women and children. And isn't it precisely these countries who are going to ignore this plan?

BOYCE: Not to get into a philosophical debate and without naming names or naming countries either, you've touched on one side of the equation. The other side of the equation is, ironically and sadly enough, that those countries with the highest level of rule of law, the highest level of development, with the highest per capita GDP are the destination countries. So, again there are two sides to this equation. They are not going to be easy, either side of them because there are attitudes that have to be looked at -- historical, transcultural indicators, etc.

I think there is no question -- and I don't take issue with your point -- but it is not simply setting aside a group of countries and saying that because they are relatively lacking in some of the elements you mentioned, they are going to completely ignore this and the whole point of the exercise is fruitless and that it is simply a lot of high-sounding verbiage.

The effort here is to go at both sides of the equation. We can't simply attack trafficking by pointing fingers and naming names and then going away. There are elements of rule of law, respect for human rights, understanding transnational issues, being willing to work in a community of nations, being used to coming to conferences and basically opening your books, being willing to take account of experiences and best practices of other countries. Many countries that are just getting into some of these international fora are not quite used to any of that yet. So we have a long way to go. There's no question about it.

Again I'm not going to name names -- and leave aside the fact that we got 20 plus various international organizations -- but if you look at the 20 countries here, they span the gamut of the kinds of societies you and I have talked about here, and I think that is a worthy outcome. The fact that we got consensus -- at the beginning of these three days some of the individual countries came to Manila with a lot of questions about what it was they were being expected to do, what they were supposed to sign onto, what they could commit to, whether they could go back, etc. We were able to come up with a formulation where we are not dictating to anybody. We are not trying to ram anybody's values down anybody else's throat but rather put together sort of a list of the kinds of activities across the board that are going to require them to go back-it is not a menu of options by any means but it is an action plan.

Q: I take your point about the source countries and the destination countries. Exactly the same thing could be said of the drug trade, which you compared this traffic to. Why isn't the United States for example drawing up a hit list of countries that are sources, transit points for women and children in the same way as they draw up a hit list for drug producing and transit countries.

BOYCE: Come back to me in a year or two and I'll bet you we are releasing the latest U.S. report cards for how countries are doing on the subject of transnational crimes such as this one.

Again, this is not an afterthought by any means, but I think I said at some point along here that transnational issues like this one in the wake of the Cold War have become increasingly the stuff of international diplomacy, whereas not that many years ago these issues were not at the forefront. I am not predicting and I am not inviting our Congress to pass legislation requiring us to come up with these kinds of reports; but you know, the narcotics issue, the international crime issue, this is a subset of that and we are refining our techniques and I am not going to try to predict that there will be report cards. I am not sure that necessarily is the way to go. This process is going to change dramatically. If you come back in a year, and we review where we are after this action plan has come out, I really doubt we are going to be talking a lot of empty words. I think there will be a lot of progress to point to and probably a lot more institutionalization and a lot more in terms of awareness through the media, through meetings like this. This is a subject that is just beginning to attract the kind of attention it deserves.

Q: (INAUDIBLE)

BOYCE: I think that you are touching on an issue that any kind of a meeting like this gets which is the tension between sovereignty and transnational issues. And the tension is always there. Report cards issued by an individual country commenting on the supposedly internal affairs of another country or policies in regional organizations where countries profess not to comment on internal policies of other countries is a prevailing, sensitive issue in international fora everywhere. At the same time, however, these increasing transnational crimes, these increasing transnational flows, whether its guns, people, diseases, refugees, narcotics, whatever, are increasingly calling into question traditional ways of avoiding talking about some of the issues that have been reserved as strictly domestic issues. There is a lot of change and foment going on this area.

BOTTI: I would just like to comment on this also. I don't know that report cards would do us much good because what we have learned is that there is no country around the world, not one, that is immune or has the answers to this. So you will be doing a report card on every single country. And I think the one thing that has made this issue so clear is that there is no answer in any one country.

If you look at where there are laws that even approach comprehensive legislation of the four areas that were mentioned-they are still wanting. One is in the Netherlands, one is in Belgium and another is in Italy. But they still are trying to fix them because they do not really address all these issues adequately. No other country has tried to do this comprehensively.

So I think report cards are perhaps premature since we all -- including the United States and your country as well -- have work to do. And I think that is in the spirit that we have started this. I think that given over the last two years the work that has been done both throughout the European Union, OSCE, SAARC, other international fora would back my statement up. I think they all come to the table humbly saying this is an issue of international proportion and none of us is equipped to deal with it. So maybe report cards, but not quite yet.

Q: I'm Sol Juvida from Pan Philippine News. Regarding the aspect of prosecution, did the regions agree on the penalty for trafficking; did you have any agreement for example to impose the death penalty for trafficking or should the regions be considering penalties on their own? And number two, do you have a sort of a fixed solution for trafficking, because I found that the plans will take years before we can see results?

BOTTI: It depends on the state that the country is in and each country that was mentioned earlier is at different state. But to go back to your earlier question, I think the objective here is to recognize that no one country has sufficiently dealt with the prosecution law. So they are having to model their laws according to the needs of their own respective country. And there has been a lot of exchange on that issue. So that we are learning from each other. And I think that the level of penalties is obviously going to be dealt with within the states themselves.

With respect to internationally dealing with this, I would ask you to find within the action plan, page four, a reference to a convention against transnational organized crime being discussed right now in Vienna. The thing about this is that it is again an international discussion. It takes into account two areas: mind you it is a crime convention, but it talks about getting the traffickers and penalties so that, internationally, countries can work together. But it also talks about protection for the victims.

For those of you who were here the other day, we talked about it and it is one of the reasons we always talk about integrating these issues. If you do not deal with protection, and just put up penalties, you will not adequately ever address the crime.

Q: Good afternoon, I'm Sharmaine Deogracias of People's Journal. I am interested to know if you were able to site or identify tourism policies on a regional level or maybe on a national level -- but it is common to most of the countries that breed trafficking -- and what are the measures that you have identified to counter that?

MANALO: What I gather from the discussions in the workshops, it was identified that unqualified kind of tourism, tourism that brings in what we call sex packages has to be addressed. Tourism, unless properly managed and brought forward as a quality tourism, could be a breeding environment for trafficking. But states should look into their tourism policies to see how to eliminate what is negative in their tourism policies with respect to women and children, and one of them being the trafficking of women and children and sourcing them out through tourism action. So I think this has been addressed in the workshop. And it is now up to the country to really look into this very deeply and truly do something positive to help us in combating trafficking particularly in women and children.

(end transcript)

(Distributed by the Office of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: usinfo.state.gov)

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