*EPF404 02/20/2003
State Department Conference Will Seek Strategies to Combat Sex Trafficking
(Feb. 23-26 meeting gathers trafficking foes from more than 110 nations) (910)

By Charlene Porter
Washington File Staff Writer

Washington ���� The U.S. State Department is joining a coalition of nongovernmental organizations to sponsor a meeting February 23-26 to focus on ways to stop sex trafficking. Entitled "Pathbreaking Strategies in the Global Fight Against Sex Trafficking," the Washington conference is being held as the result of a congressional directive that conference organizers say demonstrates the U.S. commitment to counter sex trafficking, widely denounced as a form of modern day slavery.

"The commitment of the United States to fighting this issue is very evident in the high-level U.S. participation that we have," said Elizabeth Pryor, the senior coordinator in charge of the conference within the State Department's Trafficking in Persons office. In a Washington File interview previewing the meeting, she said "an extraordinary line-up of senior U.S. officials" will participate, including the secretaries of State, Justice and Health and Human Services, as well as members of Congress and other agency heads.

The State Department's co-sponsor in the meeting is the War Against Trafficking Alliance, comprising four U.S.-based nongovernmental organizations that are working to combat sex trafficking, a form of criminal activity that is reaping enormous profits for organized crime, almost as much as trafficking in narcotics and weapons. The alliance was formed by the Johns Hopkins University Protection Project, Shared Hope International, International Justice Mission, and Salvation Army U.S.A. The group lobbied Congress for financial support for this meeting and was designated as a co-sponsor at the same time.

Human trafficking claims between 700,000 and 4 million victims a year, according to a 2002 survey conducted by the State Department. But given the covert nature of the activity, even the greatest experts in the field are uncertain of the statistics. Authorities estimate that 50,000 people are trafficked into the United States each year.

Trafficking has emerged as a criminal growth industry in part due to the demise of the Soviet Union and the greater freedom of movement and more open borders that resulted. At the same time, serious economic difficulty has befallen many countries. Young women and girls are anxious to find new economic opportunity and a better life, so they become the victims of criminal gangs who dangle prospects of good jobs and a better future just across the next border.

Trafficking has also been on the rise in cultures where women have a lower social status. Anti-trafficking groups report that desperately poor parents are selling their lesser-valued daughters into the sex trade in some nations. Taken away from their homes, across an international border, left with no other means of support, the victims of sex traffickers are kept as virtual prisoners and frequently physically abused.

"They are basically slaves," said Representative Frank Wolf, a Republican from Virginia, who has been a strong advocate in Congress for greater international action. "The abuse of these women over and over, ... with HIV/AIDS, it's a death sentence," said Wolf in a Washington File interview. He was a co-sponsor of the law that called for the conference, and he will be among the speakers at the event.

As global recognition of this criminal activity has increased, nongovernmental organizations have been active in attempting to combat it, and so it is appropriate that such groups are co-sponsors of the upcoming meeting, Pryor said. "There are a lot of avenues for fighting this, and the NGOs have been active in a lot of them -- helping victims, trying to get governments to help victims, encouraging governments, bringing pressure to bear on them."

The upcoming Washington conference brings together about 250 anti-trafficking activists from more than 110 countries who have demonstrated success in attacking the problem in a variety of ways -- through stronger law enforcement, increased public awareness, or rescuing and rehabilitating victims.

Pryor said the conference will "move beyond rhetoric" to discussion of effective strategies that have produced concrete results.

"It's an opportunity for us to learn from them, as well as they learn from us," said Wolf.

The Trafficking Victims Protection Act passed by Congress in 2000 may provide some lessons for attendees from other nations. The law was designed to correct a dual victimization of the women and children caught up in trafficking that old laws created. When a trafficking ring was broken and authorities took custody of sex workers in a brothel, the law often treated them as illegal immigrants or prostitutes, without recognizing their forced participation in these activities. The 2000 trafficking law reshaped the legal code to better recognize the emergence of this new form of criminal activity and the innocence of the victims.

As a result of the law, "now there are more sensitive things being done with regard to the courts," Wolf said. The law also works to help the victims recover from their ordeal as forced sex workers, with funding authorized for emergency medical treatment, food, shelter, legal and mental health counseling, and other social services.

"There's a lot being done, but, there's a long way to go," Wolf said. He underscored his concern for the serious dimensions of sexual trafficking in other nations where new legal regimens have not been put in place and where law enforcement may act as a silent partner in this form of slavery.

(The Washington File is a product of the Office of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)

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