New York Lawyer
February 26, 2008
By Evan Hill
The Recorder
Two attorneys from Sheppard, Mullin, Richter & Hampton used a novel approach to win a settlement for a client who probably wouldn't have put an Am Law 100 firm high on her list of likely knights in shining armor — a former child prostitute.
Robert Gerber, a partner and chair of the firm's pro bono committee, and Nathaniel Bruno, an associate, sued the girl's former pimps under §52.5 of the California Civil Code, established in 2005 with the passage of the Trafficking Victims Protection Act.
To their knowledge, the statute had never before been used to win a monetary settlement for a child prostitute.
The bill created the crime of trafficking a person for forced labor or services and enabled victims of trafficking to bring civil actions.
The plaintiff, an 18-year-old woman, ran away from home three years ago and into the arms of a husband-wife pair of pimps whom she had met through her mother, also a prostitute, the complaint says.
The suit, brought in San Francisco Superior Court, accused the two of persuading the girl to have sex with them and teaching her the work of a prostitute: how to manipulate "johns," how much money to charge, and how to avoid being arrested. Her pimps charged $1,000 a night for her, according to the complaint.
Eventually, both the husband and wife and the girl were arrested, and she was put into the care of Los Angeles nonprofit Children of the Night. The president of the group had connections at Sheppard, Mullin, and the case was given to Gerber.
Though Bruno said he couldn't disclose the amount of the settlement, the complaint asked for an award "in amounts to be proven at trial, but in excess of $1 million."
He said he saw the case as a chance to "develop the law under this brand-new statute," and that Sheppard hopes to take on similar cases in the future.
Tuesday, February 26, 2008
Tuesday, February 19, 2008
The Wrong Target
The New York Times / nytimes.com
February 19, 2008 / OP-ED COLUMNIST / By BOB HERBERT
A New York City police detective and his girlfriend have been accused of kidnapping and forcing a 13-year-old girl into prostitution.
According to the Queens district attorney’s office, the detective, Wayne Taylor, and the girlfriend, Zalika Brown, would parade the girl at parties and other places where adult men had gathered and force her to have sex with them for money — $40 for oral sex, $80 for intercourse.
The child was an investment. The couple allegedly told her that she had been purchased for $500 — purchased, like the slaves of old, only this time for use as a prostitute.
Other than the fact that one of the accused in this case is a police detective, there was nothing unusual about this tale of trafficking in young female flesh.
Our perspective is twisted. It was a big story when a television newsman was crude and thoughtless enough to use the term “pimped out” in a reference to Chelsea Clinton. The comment generated outrage — as it should have — and the newsman was suspended. But if someone actually pimps out a 13-year-old child, and even if that someone is alleged to be a police detective, it generates a collective yawn.
Across the country, young girls by the many thousands — children — are being drawn into the hellishly dangerous world of prostitution. They are raped, beaten and exploited in every way imaginable.
As part of the staggeringly lucrative commercial sex trade, the role of these children is to satisfy the sexual demands of johns who in most cases do not fit the stereotype of a pedophile.
“Many of the guys who buy sex with children would never consider themselves pedophiles,” said Rachel Lloyd, founder of an organization in New York called GEMS that offers help to under-age girls in the sex trade. “They’re not necessarily out there looking for 12-year-olds or teenagers. They just kind of don’t care.
“They feel like they have the right to buy sex from someone, and they prefer it to be someone who looks younger and cleaner and less drug-addicted.”
In the case of the accused New York City detective, the authorities acted promptly and effectively. The girl managed to escape and notified the police, who investigated immediately. Detective Taylor and Ms. Brown were arrested and the case has been turned over to the office of Queens District Attorney Richard Brown. Both are in custody.
But law enforcement does not always respond in a positive or constructive way. It is common across the country for under-age girls engaged in prostitution to be arrested, which is bizarre when you consider that it is a serious crime — statutory rape — for an adult to have sex with a minor.
If no money is involved, the youngster is considered a victim. But if the man pays for the sex — even if the money is going to the pimp, which is so often the case — the child is considered a prostitute and thus subject in many venues to arrest and incarceration.
“We often see the girls arrested and the pimps and the johns go free,” said Carol Smolenski, the head of Ecpat-USA, a group that fights the sexual exploitation of children. “One of the big problems is that there is this whole set of child sex exploiters who are not targeted as exceptionally bad guys.”
What’s needed is a paradigm shift. Society (and thus law enforcement) needs to view any adult who sexually exploits a child as a villain, and the exploited child as a victim of that villainy. If a 35-year-old pimp puts a 16-year-old girl on the street and a 30-year-old john pays to have sex with her, how is it reasonable that the girl is most often the point in that triangle that is targeted by law enforcement?
A measure of how far we still have to go is the fact that some enlightened officials in the state of New York tried to shift that paradigm last year and failed. The proposed Safe Harbor Act would have ended the practice of criminalizing kids too young to legally consent to sex. Under the law, authorities would have no longer been able to charge children with prostitution, but would have had to offer such youngsters emotional counseling, medical care and shelter, if necessary.
Legislative passage was thwarted in large part because prosecutors made the case that it was necessary to hold the threat of jail over the heads of these children as a way of coercing them to testify against pimps. In other words: If you don’t tell us who hurt you, little girl, we’re going to put you in jail.
It was an utterly specious case, filled to the bursting point with tragic implications and unworthy of a civilized society.
February 19, 2008 / OP-ED COLUMNIST / By BOB HERBERT
A New York City police detective and his girlfriend have been accused of kidnapping and forcing a 13-year-old girl into prostitution.
According to the Queens district attorney’s office, the detective, Wayne Taylor, and the girlfriend, Zalika Brown, would parade the girl at parties and other places where adult men had gathered and force her to have sex with them for money — $40 for oral sex, $80 for intercourse.
The child was an investment. The couple allegedly told her that she had been purchased for $500 — purchased, like the slaves of old, only this time for use as a prostitute.
Other than the fact that one of the accused in this case is a police detective, there was nothing unusual about this tale of trafficking in young female flesh.
Our perspective is twisted. It was a big story when a television newsman was crude and thoughtless enough to use the term “pimped out” in a reference to Chelsea Clinton. The comment generated outrage — as it should have — and the newsman was suspended. But if someone actually pimps out a 13-year-old child, and even if that someone is alleged to be a police detective, it generates a collective yawn.
Across the country, young girls by the many thousands — children — are being drawn into the hellishly dangerous world of prostitution. They are raped, beaten and exploited in every way imaginable.
As part of the staggeringly lucrative commercial sex trade, the role of these children is to satisfy the sexual demands of johns who in most cases do not fit the stereotype of a pedophile.
“Many of the guys who buy sex with children would never consider themselves pedophiles,” said Rachel Lloyd, founder of an organization in New York called GEMS that offers help to under-age girls in the sex trade. “They’re not necessarily out there looking for 12-year-olds or teenagers. They just kind of don’t care.
“They feel like they have the right to buy sex from someone, and they prefer it to be someone who looks younger and cleaner and less drug-addicted.”
In the case of the accused New York City detective, the authorities acted promptly and effectively. The girl managed to escape and notified the police, who investigated immediately. Detective Taylor and Ms. Brown were arrested and the case has been turned over to the office of Queens District Attorney Richard Brown. Both are in custody.
But law enforcement does not always respond in a positive or constructive way. It is common across the country for under-age girls engaged in prostitution to be arrested, which is bizarre when you consider that it is a serious crime — statutory rape — for an adult to have sex with a minor.
If no money is involved, the youngster is considered a victim. But if the man pays for the sex — even if the money is going to the pimp, which is so often the case — the child is considered a prostitute and thus subject in many venues to arrest and incarceration.
“We often see the girls arrested and the pimps and the johns go free,” said Carol Smolenski, the head of Ecpat-USA, a group that fights the sexual exploitation of children. “One of the big problems is that there is this whole set of child sex exploiters who are not targeted as exceptionally bad guys.”
What’s needed is a paradigm shift. Society (and thus law enforcement) needs to view any adult who sexually exploits a child as a villain, and the exploited child as a victim of that villainy. If a 35-year-old pimp puts a 16-year-old girl on the street and a 30-year-old john pays to have sex with her, how is it reasonable that the girl is most often the point in that triangle that is targeted by law enforcement?
A measure of how far we still have to go is the fact that some enlightened officials in the state of New York tried to shift that paradigm last year and failed. The proposed Safe Harbor Act would have ended the practice of criminalizing kids too young to legally consent to sex. Under the law, authorities would have no longer been able to charge children with prostitution, but would have had to offer such youngsters emotional counseling, medical care and shelter, if necessary.
Legislative passage was thwarted in large part because prosecutors made the case that it was necessary to hold the threat of jail over the heads of these children as a way of coercing them to testify against pimps. In other words: If you don’t tell us who hurt you, little girl, we’re going to put you in jail.
It was an utterly specious case, filled to the bursting point with tragic implications and unworthy of a civilized society.
Monday, January 28, 2008
Sex Tourism on the Rise in Nepal
From treks to sex: Is a new sort of thrill-seeker heading for Nepal?
Jan 24th 2008 | KATHMANDU
From The Economist print edition
“I CAN only dance when I'm drunk,” confides Srijana, a 20-year-old employee of the Pussy Cat Bar and Shower, a tavern in Thamel, Kathmandu's main tourist hangout. A few slurps from a customer's glass later and she mounts a small stage. There, to whoops from a few tipsy locals, she sheds most of her clothes and gyrates to a Hindi pop tune. Dangling above her is the Damoclean sword included in the bar's name: a silver shower nozzle, positioned to spray flesh-revealing water on a dancer below.
Such gimmicks are common in Thamel's bars, where competition for lascivious males is fierce. Until a few years ago Nepal had no obvious sex industry. There are now an estimated 200 massage parlours and 35 “dance bars”, such as the Pussy Cat, in Thamel alone—with over 1,000 girls and women working in them. Many sell sex. In the Pussy Cat, another dancer admits to turning tricks, for 1,800 rupees ($28).
That is a tidy sum in Nepal, South Asia's poorest country. It is much more than Nepali women are paid in India's flesh-pots—to which over 5,000 are trafficked each year, according to the UN. But the dancers in Thamel are chasing a richer sort of Indian: tourists. And their government seems to be encouraging them. In an advertisement for “Wild Stag Weekends”, the Nepal Tourism Board offers this advice: “Don't forget to have a drink at one of the local dance bars, where beautiful Nepali belles will dance circles around your pals.”
In a country with a rich tradition of dance, where paying for sex is illegal, this might be harmless innuendo. But not everybody thinks so. During the recently-ended civil war, Nepal's Himalayan tourism industry collapsed. Some activists think that sex tourism is replacing it. According to John Frederick, an expert on South Asia's sex trade, “Ten years ago the sex industry was underground in Nepal. Now it's like Bangkok, it's like Phnom Penh.”
The war, which put much of rural Nepal under the control of Maoist insurgents, has increased the supply of sex workers. Srijana is from the poor and still violent district of Siraha in southern Nepal. She was widowed there two years ago, and left an infant son to come to the capital. Yet she is remarkably cheerful—perhaps because she is drunk, and the shower is not working.
Jan 24th 2008 | KATHMANDU
From The Economist print edition
“I CAN only dance when I'm drunk,” confides Srijana, a 20-year-old employee of the Pussy Cat Bar and Shower, a tavern in Thamel, Kathmandu's main tourist hangout. A few slurps from a customer's glass later and she mounts a small stage. There, to whoops from a few tipsy locals, she sheds most of her clothes and gyrates to a Hindi pop tune. Dangling above her is the Damoclean sword included in the bar's name: a silver shower nozzle, positioned to spray flesh-revealing water on a dancer below.
Such gimmicks are common in Thamel's bars, where competition for lascivious males is fierce. Until a few years ago Nepal had no obvious sex industry. There are now an estimated 200 massage parlours and 35 “dance bars”, such as the Pussy Cat, in Thamel alone—with over 1,000 girls and women working in them. Many sell sex. In the Pussy Cat, another dancer admits to turning tricks, for 1,800 rupees ($28).
That is a tidy sum in Nepal, South Asia's poorest country. It is much more than Nepali women are paid in India's flesh-pots—to which over 5,000 are trafficked each year, according to the UN. But the dancers in Thamel are chasing a richer sort of Indian: tourists. And their government seems to be encouraging them. In an advertisement for “Wild Stag Weekends”, the Nepal Tourism Board offers this advice: “Don't forget to have a drink at one of the local dance bars, where beautiful Nepali belles will dance circles around your pals.”
In a country with a rich tradition of dance, where paying for sex is illegal, this might be harmless innuendo. But not everybody thinks so. During the recently-ended civil war, Nepal's Himalayan tourism industry collapsed. Some activists think that sex tourism is replacing it. According to John Frederick, an expert on South Asia's sex trade, “Ten years ago the sex industry was underground in Nepal. Now it's like Bangkok, it's like Phnom Penh.”
The war, which put much of rural Nepal under the control of Maoist insurgents, has increased the supply of sex workers. Srijana is from the poor and still violent district of Siraha in southern Nepal. She was widowed there two years ago, and left an infant son to come to the capital. Yet she is remarkably cheerful—perhaps because she is drunk, and the shower is not working.
Sunday, January 6, 2008
Sex slaves, human trafficking... in America?
In spring of 2004, Katya (not her real name), like thousands of other foreign exchange university students, was looking forward to the summer job placement that she and a friend had received in Virginia Beach, Virginia. When she and her friend Lena arrived at Dulles Airport after a long flight from Ukraine, they were relieved to be met by fellow countrymen who spoke Russian.
The two men, Alex Maksimenko and Michael Aronov, were holding signs with the girls’ names and greeted them by taking their bags and luggage. Charming and reassuring, Aronov informed the girls that they had been reassigned to a job in Detroit where they would waitress and perfect their English language skills.
The men drove Katya and Lena to the Greyhound bus station and gave them tickets to Detroit. Confused and exhausted, the girls had no reason to question the change of plans.
“When we got to the hotel in Detroit, everything changed,” says Katya. “They closed the door and sat us down on the couch, took our passports and papers and said, you owe us big money for bringing you here. They gave us strip clothes and told us that we were going to be working at a strip club called ‘Cheetahs.’”
Shocked and scared, the two women were subjected to physical, mental and sexual abuse over the next year as they were forced to work 12-hour shifts stripping for local Detroit men’s clubs. According to immigration customs agent Angus Lowe, the men controlled the women through intimidation with guns and threats to hurt family members back home.
Katya and her friend are two of the estimated 17,000 young women and girls annually who are forced to work in the sex industry in the U.S. by organized criminals. “Chicago, Houston, St. Paul, Minnesota, these crimes are happening in every community in America big and small,” says Marcie Forman, Director of Investigations for ICE (Immigration Customs Enforcement.) “We’re talking about money here. Millions of dollars and these people don’t think about these women as human beings. They think of them as dollars and cents,” Forman says.
In February 2005, after months of planning and finally confiding in a customer from the strip club, the two girls escaped and were brought to the FBI and ICE. Their escape resulted in the arrest of Alex Maksimenko and Michael Aronov, both of whom pleaded guilty and are serving time in federal prison for their crimes.
Even though her captors are in prison, Katya says she will never live without fear. Maksimenko’s father — who was also convicted of forced labor and illegal trafficking — continues to live openly in Ukraine as a fugitive from authorities.
Adapted from: Grace Kahng, "Sex slaves, human trafficking... in America?." msnbc.com. 3 December 2007. (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22083762/)
The two men, Alex Maksimenko and Michael Aronov, were holding signs with the girls’ names and greeted them by taking their bags and luggage. Charming and reassuring, Aronov informed the girls that they had been reassigned to a job in Detroit where they would waitress and perfect their English language skills.
The men drove Katya and Lena to the Greyhound bus station and gave them tickets to Detroit. Confused and exhausted, the girls had no reason to question the change of plans.
“When we got to the hotel in Detroit, everything changed,” says Katya. “They closed the door and sat us down on the couch, took our passports and papers and said, you owe us big money for bringing you here. They gave us strip clothes and told us that we were going to be working at a strip club called ‘Cheetahs.’”
Shocked and scared, the two women were subjected to physical, mental and sexual abuse over the next year as they were forced to work 12-hour shifts stripping for local Detroit men’s clubs. According to immigration customs agent Angus Lowe, the men controlled the women through intimidation with guns and threats to hurt family members back home.
Katya and her friend are two of the estimated 17,000 young women and girls annually who are forced to work in the sex industry in the U.S. by organized criminals. “Chicago, Houston, St. Paul, Minnesota, these crimes are happening in every community in America big and small,” says Marcie Forman, Director of Investigations for ICE (Immigration Customs Enforcement.) “We’re talking about money here. Millions of dollars and these people don’t think about these women as human beings. They think of them as dollars and cents,” Forman says.
In February 2005, after months of planning and finally confiding in a customer from the strip club, the two girls escaped and were brought to the FBI and ICE. Their escape resulted in the arrest of Alex Maksimenko and Michael Aronov, both of whom pleaded guilty and are serving time in federal prison for their crimes.
Even though her captors are in prison, Katya says she will never live without fear. Maksimenko’s father — who was also convicted of forced labor and illegal trafficking — continues to live openly in Ukraine as a fugitive from authorities.
Adapted from: Grace Kahng, "Sex slaves, human trafficking... in America?." msnbc.com. 3 December 2007. (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22083762/)
Tuesday, November 6, 2007
New York Magazine to Drop Sex Ads
UPDATE: New York Magazine to Drop Sex Ads
November 8th Protest Cancelled
New York Magazine has decided to eliminate its "adult" advertisements and to work with NOW-NYC to fight human trafficking in the coming year. This is great news for the magazine, women and the movement to bring an end to human trafficking in our city. We applaud the leadership of New York Magazine, and we look forward to celebrating this progress in the very near future with you.
www.nownyc.org
November 8th Protest Cancelled
New York Magazine has decided to eliminate its "adult" advertisements and to work with NOW-NYC to fight human trafficking in the coming year. This is great news for the magazine, women and the movement to bring an end to human trafficking in our city. We applaud the leadership of New York Magazine, and we look forward to celebrating this progress in the very near future with you.
www.nownyc.org
Wednesday, October 31, 2007
Protect Children from Sexual Exploitation in Tourism
Each year, over a million children are exploited in the global commercial sex trade. Child sex tourism (CST) involves people who travel from their own country to another and engage in commercial sex acts with children. CST is a shameful assault on the dignity of children and a form of violent child abuse and violence. The commercial sexual exploitation of children has devastating consequences for these minors, which may include long-lasting physical and psychological trauma, disease (including HIV/AIDS), drug addiction, unwanted pregnancy, malnutrition, social ostracism, and possibly death.
Tourists engaging in CST often travel to developing countries looking for anonymity and the availability of children in prostitution. The crime is typically fueled byweak law enforcement, corruption, the Internet, ease of travel, and poverty. These sexual offenders come from all socio-economic backgrounds and may hold positions of trust. Previous cases of child sex tourism involving U.S. citizens have included a pediatrician, a retired Army sergeant, a dentist and a university professor. Child pornography is frequently involved in these cases; and drugs may also be used to solicit or control the minors.
Over the last five years, there has been an increase in the prosecution of child sex tourism offenses. At least 32 countries have extraterritorial laws that allow the prosecution of their citizens for CST crimes committed abroad. In response to the phenomenon of CST, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), the tourism industry, and governments have begun to address the issue. The World Tourism Organization (WTO) established a task force to combat CST. The WTO, the NGO End Child Prostitution, Child Pornography and Trafficking of Children for Sexual Purposes (ECPAT), and Nordic tour operators created a global Code of Conduct for the Protection of Children from Sexual Exploitation in Travel and Tourism in 1999. As of June 2005, 200 travel companies from 21 countries had signed the code (see www.thecode.org.).
-http://www.state.gov/g/tip/rls/fs/2005/51351.htm
What you can do:
ECPAT-USA has recently begun a letter campaign aimed at persuading the CEOs of large hotels to sign the Code of Conduct. Some CEOs have bee responsive; others have not.
On Thursday, November 8th, come to the cafeteria between 11-1 and sign a letter to the President of the Hyatt, one of hotels the ECPAT letter campaign is targeting, declaring your disgust with child sex tourism and asking him to sign the Code of Conduct.
Tourists engaging in CST often travel to developing countries looking for anonymity and the availability of children in prostitution. The crime is typically fueled byweak law enforcement, corruption, the Internet, ease of travel, and poverty. These sexual offenders come from all socio-economic backgrounds and may hold positions of trust. Previous cases of child sex tourism involving U.S. citizens have included a pediatrician, a retired Army sergeant, a dentist and a university professor. Child pornography is frequently involved in these cases; and drugs may also be used to solicit or control the minors.
Over the last five years, there has been an increase in the prosecution of child sex tourism offenses. At least 32 countries have extraterritorial laws that allow the prosecution of their citizens for CST crimes committed abroad. In response to the phenomenon of CST, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), the tourism industry, and governments have begun to address the issue. The World Tourism Organization (WTO) established a task force to combat CST. The WTO, the NGO End Child Prostitution, Child Pornography and Trafficking of Children for Sexual Purposes (ECPAT), and Nordic tour operators created a global Code of Conduct for the Protection of Children from Sexual Exploitation in Travel and Tourism in 1999. As of June 2005, 200 travel companies from 21 countries had signed the code (see www.thecode.org.).
-http://www.state.gov/g/tip/rls/fs/2005/51351.htm
What you can do:
ECPAT-USA has recently begun a letter campaign aimed at persuading the CEOs of large hotels to sign the Code of Conduct. Some CEOs have bee responsive; others have not.
On Thursday, November 8th, come to the cafeteria between 11-1 and sign a letter to the President of the Hyatt, one of hotels the ECPAT letter campaign is targeting, declaring your disgust with child sex tourism and asking him to sign the Code of Conduct.
HOLLY: A new film exposing child sex exploitation
Wednesday, November 14, 2007 at 4:15pm
Clearview Cinemas, 1871 Broadway at 62nd street
A feature length narrative film based on the true stories of abducted children and their fight for freedom. Starring Ron Livingston, Virginie Ledoyan, Udo Kier, the late Chris Penn and introducing 14 year-old Thuy Nguyen.
This is a screening event with Q&A afterwards... just for FORDHAM students and faculty
Fordham students: $11
BEFORE THEY SELL OUT, GET YOUR TICKETS EARLY BY LOGGING ON TO:
https://www.ovationtix.com/trs/pe/220461
http://www.priorityfilms.com/k11/holly.html
HOLLY is an insightful and jarring story of child prostitution told through the complex relationship between Holly (Thuy Nguyen), a 12-year-old Vietnamese girl, and Patrick (Ron Livingston), an American dealer of stolen artifacts.
Holly has been sold by her poor family and smuggled across the border to Cambodia to work as a prostitute in the infamous "K11" red light village. While Holly waits to be sold at a premium for her virginity, she meets Patrick who is losing money and friends through gambling and bar fights.
Their initial strong connection is disrupted when Holly is sold to a child trafficker and disappears. Patrick's pursuit to find Holly again, and her unrelenting efforts to escape her fate, carry us through the beautiful and harsh Cambodia.
HOLLY is not just one girl.
She is the voice of millions of children who are exploited and violated every year with no rights or protection.
*** CAN'T MAKE IT TO THE SCREENING ON NOVEMBER 14TH? THE FOLLOWING DATES ARE AVAILABLE FOR STUDENTS FROM ALL SCHOOLS:
November 13 @ 9:45 PM – General Student Screening ($11)– https://www.ovationtix.com/trs/pe/220861
November 13 @ 4:15 PM – General Student Screening ($11) – https://www.ovationtix.com/trs/pe/220431
November 16 @ 1:30 PM – General Student Screening ($11) - https://www.ovationtix.com/trs/pe/220511
November 18 @ 1:30 pm – General Student Screening ($11) – https://www.ovationtix.com/trs/pe/220721
Tuesday, October 30, 2007
FAQ's about anti-trafficking legislation
Q: Why does New York State need a trafficking bill?
A: Existing laws against crimes such as rape and kidnapping don’t adequately address trafficking. Kidnapping requires that the victim be secreted, held, or confined; rape requires an imminent threat of force; and these elements are not always present in a trafficking situation. Traffickers use a range of techniques including deceit, intimidation, implicit threats, immigration abuse, and other methods to control their victims. A trafficker might, for example, lure a victim to the United States with a fraudulent job offer, take away the victim’s passport and money, surround the victim with accomplices who appear physically menacing, and threaten to report the victim to the police unless he or she follows orders. For a victim who has no resources and is terrified by the prospect of contact with an unfamiliar police force in an unknown country, such conduct might be enough to ensure the victim’s compliance so that the trafficker can exploit the victim in a brutal - and highly profitable - manner. The misdemeanor penalties for offenses such as promoting prostitution are too low to create adequate deterrence against a criminal enterprise in which the potential profits are huge, driven by the extensive demand for commercial sex or cheap labor. And these low-level penalties fail to address the highly abusive and harmful behavior that is specific to trafficking, or the devastating after-effects for victims.
Q: Isn't trafficking a federal offense? Why isn't the federal law enough?
A: With trafficking (as with other crime categories), federal authorities pick and choose which cases to investigate and prosecute. Typically they choose larger-scale cases, which might involve multiple defendants, multiple victims, and an extensive criminal enterprise with significant assets. This is in no way intended as a criticism of federal anti-trafficking enforcement; it is simply the nature of federal efforts against all types of crimes, including narcotics, weapons, and stalking, that federal law enforcement leaves many untouched cases for state authorities to pursue. As to narcotics, weapons, and stalking, there are strong state laws complementing federal laws; states need strong anti-trafficking laws as well. Moreover, it is often state and local police officers - not federal agents - who come into contact with trafficking victims during local operations such as brothel raids. Without a state anti-trafficking law, these officers are less likely to consider the possibility that the women they arrest for prostitution may in fact be crime victims rather than criminals. State legislatures are quickly realizing that anti-trafficking laws are needed at the state level: twenty-two states have enacted anti-trafficking laws as of 2006.
Q: What would an effective anti-trafficking law include?
A: An effective anti-trafficking bill would: 1. Define trafficking with reference to the typical kinds of fraud and coercion that traffickers commonly use on their victims, rather than the narrow doctrine of "imminent threat of force." 2. Create strong penalties for the traffickers-enough to provide meaningful deterrence to an enormously profitable criminal activity. 3. Address those who patronize the sex industry, as they create the demand that makes the industry so profitable and creates the motive for trafficking. 4. Clarify existing law on sex tourism in order to stop the sex tour operators who conduct business in New York State, promoting sex tours that drive trafficking in poorer countries, where victims have no recourse against those who profit from their suffering. 5. Create remedies for victims of trafficking, including a defense for trafficked individuals who are sometimes arrested for the very acts of prostitution that they are coerced to perform; allow victims to recover restitution and damages from traffickers. 6. Provide services to assist trafficking victims in rehabilitating their lives.
- from www.stophumantraffickingny.org/FAQ.html
A: Existing laws against crimes such as rape and kidnapping don’t adequately address trafficking. Kidnapping requires that the victim be secreted, held, or confined; rape requires an imminent threat of force; and these elements are not always present in a trafficking situation. Traffickers use a range of techniques including deceit, intimidation, implicit threats, immigration abuse, and other methods to control their victims. A trafficker might, for example, lure a victim to the United States with a fraudulent job offer, take away the victim’s passport and money, surround the victim with accomplices who appear physically menacing, and threaten to report the victim to the police unless he or she follows orders. For a victim who has no resources and is terrified by the prospect of contact with an unfamiliar police force in an unknown country, such conduct might be enough to ensure the victim’s compliance so that the trafficker can exploit the victim in a brutal - and highly profitable - manner. The misdemeanor penalties for offenses such as promoting prostitution are too low to create adequate deterrence against a criminal enterprise in which the potential profits are huge, driven by the extensive demand for commercial sex or cheap labor. And these low-level penalties fail to address the highly abusive and harmful behavior that is specific to trafficking, or the devastating after-effects for victims.
Q: Isn't trafficking a federal offense? Why isn't the federal law enough?
A: With trafficking (as with other crime categories), federal authorities pick and choose which cases to investigate and prosecute. Typically they choose larger-scale cases, which might involve multiple defendants, multiple victims, and an extensive criminal enterprise with significant assets. This is in no way intended as a criticism of federal anti-trafficking enforcement; it is simply the nature of federal efforts against all types of crimes, including narcotics, weapons, and stalking, that federal law enforcement leaves many untouched cases for state authorities to pursue. As to narcotics, weapons, and stalking, there are strong state laws complementing federal laws; states need strong anti-trafficking laws as well. Moreover, it is often state and local police officers - not federal agents - who come into contact with trafficking victims during local operations such as brothel raids. Without a state anti-trafficking law, these officers are less likely to consider the possibility that the women they arrest for prostitution may in fact be crime victims rather than criminals. State legislatures are quickly realizing that anti-trafficking laws are needed at the state level: twenty-two states have enacted anti-trafficking laws as of 2006.
Q: What would an effective anti-trafficking law include?
A: An effective anti-trafficking bill would: 1. Define trafficking with reference to the typical kinds of fraud and coercion that traffickers commonly use on their victims, rather than the narrow doctrine of "imminent threat of force." 2. Create strong penalties for the traffickers-enough to provide meaningful deterrence to an enormously profitable criminal activity. 3. Address those who patronize the sex industry, as they create the demand that makes the industry so profitable and creates the motive for trafficking. 4. Clarify existing law on sex tourism in order to stop the sex tour operators who conduct business in New York State, promoting sex tours that drive trafficking in poorer countries, where victims have no recourse against those who profit from their suffering. 5. Create remedies for victims of trafficking, including a defense for trafficked individuals who are sometimes arrested for the very acts of prostitution that they are coerced to perform; allow victims to recover restitution and damages from traffickers. 6. Provide services to assist trafficking victims in rehabilitating their lives.
- from www.stophumantraffickingny.org/FAQ.html
Useful Websites
www.humantrafficking.org
Very useful website with information on trafficking, news articles, and links to anti-trafficking organizations around the world.
UNODC Trafficking in Human Beings:
http://www.unodc.org/unodc/en/trafficking_human_beings.html
Information on the U.N. Protocol to Prevent, Suppress, and Punish Trafficking in Persons and links to useful websites.
U.S. State Department:
http://www.state.gov/g/tip/
Information on the federal law against trafficking, Trafficking Victims Protection Act, and links to the yearly Trafficking in Persons Reports, which document the anti-trafficking efforts of countries worldwide.
Coalition Against Trafficking in Women
www.catwinternational.org
The Coalition Against Trafficking in Women (CATW) is creating real and lasting changes in countries around the world by launching and supporting anti-trafficking projects in areas that few programs address: the links between prostitution and trafficking; challenging the demand for prostitution that promotes sex trafficking; and protecting the women and children who are its victims by working to curb legal acceptance and tolerance of the sex industry.
New York State Anti-Trafficking Organizations:
NY State Anti-Trafficking Coalition:
A group of organizations that have joined forces to advocate for an effective New York State law to criminalize traffickers and to protect and help victims of this abuse.
www.stophumantraffickingny.org
Equality Now:
The Campaign Against Sex Tourism/Trafficking addresses the commercial sexual exploitation of women in its campaign against sex tourism and trafficking.
www.equalitynow.org
Safe Horizon:
Safe Horizon assists survivors of human trafficking within the greater New York City area.
www.safehorizon.org
National Organization of Women – New York City:
NOW-NYC's human trafficking campaign started in the fall of 2006 to: get a state law that recognized trafficking as a crime, increase public education on this modern-day slavery, collect trafficking victims stories, access how state agencies are identifying, tracking and prioritizing this issue, and shed light on how the trafficking industry is a part of the local economy and identify the legitimate businesses that do business with traffickers.
www.nownyc.org/
Very useful website with information on trafficking, news articles, and links to anti-trafficking organizations around the world.
UNODC Trafficking in Human Beings:
http://www.unodc.org/unodc/en/trafficking_human_beings.html
Information on the U.N. Protocol to Prevent, Suppress, and Punish Trafficking in Persons and links to useful websites.
U.S. State Department:
http://www.state.gov/g/tip/
Information on the federal law against trafficking, Trafficking Victims Protection Act, and links to the yearly Trafficking in Persons Reports, which document the anti-trafficking efforts of countries worldwide.
Coalition Against Trafficking in Women
www.catwinternational.org
The Coalition Against Trafficking in Women (CATW) is creating real and lasting changes in countries around the world by launching and supporting anti-trafficking projects in areas that few programs address: the links between prostitution and trafficking; challenging the demand for prostitution that promotes sex trafficking; and protecting the women and children who are its victims by working to curb legal acceptance and tolerance of the sex industry.
New York State Anti-Trafficking Organizations:
NY State Anti-Trafficking Coalition:
A group of organizations that have joined forces to advocate for an effective New York State law to criminalize traffickers and to protect and help victims of this abuse.
www.stophumantraffickingny.org
Equality Now:
The Campaign Against Sex Tourism/Trafficking addresses the commercial sexual exploitation of women in its campaign against sex tourism and trafficking.
www.equalitynow.org
Safe Horizon:
Safe Horizon assists survivors of human trafficking within the greater New York City area.
www.safehorizon.org
National Organization of Women – New York City:
NOW-NYC's human trafficking campaign started in the fall of 2006 to: get a state law that recognized trafficking as a crime, increase public education on this modern-day slavery, collect trafficking victims stories, access how state agencies are identifying, tracking and prioritizing this issue, and shed light on how the trafficking industry is a part of the local economy and identify the legitimate businesses that do business with traffickers.
www.nownyc.org/
International Instruments
World Conferences:
Vienna Declaration, World Conference on Human Rights
http://www1.umn.edu/humanrts/instree/l1viedec.html
UN Millennium Declaration
http://www1.umn.edu/humanrts/instree/millennium.html
Rights of the Child
Declaration of the Rights of the Child
http://www1.umn.edu/humanrts/instree/k1drc.htm
Convention on the Rights of the Child
http://www1.umn.edu/humanrts/instree/k2crc.htm
Convention Concerning the Prohibition and Immediate Action for the Elimination of the Worst Forms of Child Labour (ILO 182)
http://www1.umn.edu/humanrts/instree/ilo182.html
Optional Protocol to the Conventions on the Rights of the Child on the Sale of Children, Child Prostitution and Child Pornography
http://www1.umn.edu/humanrts/instree/childprotsale.html
Marriage:
Convention on Consent to Marriage, Minimum Age for Marriage and Registration of Marriages
http://www1.umn.edu/humanrts/instree/o1ccmar.htm
Recommendations on Consent to Marriage, Minimum Age for Marriage and Registration of Marriages
http://www1.umn.edu/humanrts/instree/o2rcmar.htm
Slavery-like Practices:
Convention Concerning Forced or Compulsory Labour
http://www1.umn.edu/humanrts/instree/childprotsale.html
Migration for Employment (Revised) (ILO No. 97)
http://www1.umn.edu/humanrts/instree/migrationemployment.html
Abolition of Forced Labour
http://www1.umn.edu/humanrts/instree/n2ilo105.htm
International Convention on Protection of All Migrant Workers and Members of their Families
http://www1.umn.edu/humanrts/instree/n8icprmw.htm
Trafficking, Smuggling and Migration:
Protocol to Prevent, Supress, and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children, Supplementing the UN Convention Against Transnational Organized Crime
http://www1.umn.edu/humanrts/instree/trafficking.html
Convention for the Suppression of the Traffic in Persons and of the Exploitation of the Prostitution of Others
http://www1.umn.edu/humanrts/instree/trafficinperson.htm
UN Convention Against Transnational Organized Crime
http://www1.umn.edu/humanrts/instree/organizedcrime.html
Protocol Against Smuggling of Migrants by Land, Sea and Air Supplementing the UN Convention Against Transnational Organized Crime
http://www1.umn.edu/humanrts/instree/smuggling.html
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Principles and Guidelines on Human Rights and Trafficking
http://www1.umn.edu/humanrts/instree/traffickingGuidelinesHCHR.html
Women's Human Rights:
Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women
http://www1.umn.edu/humanrts/instree/e1cedaw.htm
Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women
http://www1.umn.edu/humanrts/instree/cedawopprot-2000.html
Declaration on the Protection of Women and Children in Emergency and Armed Conflict
http://www1.umn.edu/humanrts/instree/e3dpwcea.htm
Declaration on the Elimination of Violence Against Women
http://www1.umn.edu/humanrts/instree/e4devw.htm
Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action - Fourth World Conference on Women
http://www1.umn.edu/humanrts/instree/e5dplw.htm
International Bills of Rights:
Universal Declaration of Human Rights
http://www1.umn.edu/humanrts/instree/b1udhr.htm
International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights
http://www1.umn.edu/humanrts/instree/b3ccpr.htm
Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights
http://www1.umn.edu/humanrts/instree/b4ccprp1.htm
International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights
http://www1.umn.edu/humanrts/instree/b2esc.ht
Vienna Declaration, World Conference on Human Rights
http://www1.umn.edu/humanrts/instree/l1viedec.html
UN Millennium Declaration
http://www1.umn.edu/humanrts/instree/millennium.html
Rights of the Child
Declaration of the Rights of the Child
http://www1.umn.edu/humanrts/instree/k1drc.htm
Convention on the Rights of the Child
http://www1.umn.edu/humanrts/instree/k2crc.htm
Convention Concerning the Prohibition and Immediate Action for the Elimination of the Worst Forms of Child Labour (ILO 182)
http://www1.umn.edu/humanrts/instree/ilo182.html
Optional Protocol to the Conventions on the Rights of the Child on the Sale of Children, Child Prostitution and Child Pornography
http://www1.umn.edu/humanrts/instree/childprotsale.html
Marriage:
Convention on Consent to Marriage, Minimum Age for Marriage and Registration of Marriages
http://www1.umn.edu/humanrts/instree/o1ccmar.htm
Recommendations on Consent to Marriage, Minimum Age for Marriage and Registration of Marriages
http://www1.umn.edu/humanrts/instree/o2rcmar.htm
Slavery-like Practices:
Convention Concerning Forced or Compulsory Labour
http://www1.umn.edu/humanrts/instree/childprotsale.html
Migration for Employment (Revised) (ILO No. 97)
http://www1.umn.edu/humanrts/instree/migrationemployment.html
Abolition of Forced Labour
http://www1.umn.edu/humanrts/instree/n2ilo105.htm
International Convention on Protection of All Migrant Workers and Members of their Families
http://www1.umn.edu/humanrts/instree/n8icprmw.htm
Trafficking, Smuggling and Migration:
Protocol to Prevent, Supress, and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children, Supplementing the UN Convention Against Transnational Organized Crime
http://www1.umn.edu/humanrts/instree/trafficking.html
Convention for the Suppression of the Traffic in Persons and of the Exploitation of the Prostitution of Others
http://www1.umn.edu/humanrts/instree/trafficinperson.htm
UN Convention Against Transnational Organized Crime
http://www1.umn.edu/humanrts/instree/organizedcrime.html
Protocol Against Smuggling of Migrants by Land, Sea and Air Supplementing the UN Convention Against Transnational Organized Crime
http://www1.umn.edu/humanrts/instree/smuggling.html
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Principles and Guidelines on Human Rights and Trafficking
http://www1.umn.edu/humanrts/instree/traffickingGuidelinesHCHR.html
Women's Human Rights:
Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women
http://www1.umn.edu/humanrts/instree/e1cedaw.htm
Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women
http://www1.umn.edu/humanrts/instree/cedawopprot-2000.html
Declaration on the Protection of Women and Children in Emergency and Armed Conflict
http://www1.umn.edu/humanrts/instree/e3dpwcea.htm
Declaration on the Elimination of Violence Against Women
http://www1.umn.edu/humanrts/instree/e4devw.htm
Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action - Fourth World Conference on Women
http://www1.umn.edu/humanrts/instree/e5dplw.htm
International Bills of Rights:
Universal Declaration of Human Rights
http://www1.umn.edu/humanrts/instree/b1udhr.htm
International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights
http://www1.umn.edu/humanrts/instree/b3ccpr.htm
Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights
http://www1.umn.edu/humanrts/instree/b4ccprp1.htm
International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights
http://www1.umn.edu/humanrts/instree/b2esc.ht
Definition of Trafficking in Persons
Definitions plague anti-trafficking efforts. Defining trafficking improperly prevents victims from being identified. The most encompassing definition of trafficking is found in Article 3 of U.N. Protocol to Prevent, Suppress, and Punish Trafficking in Persons (2000)
(a) “Trafficking in persons” shall mean the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring or receipt of persons, by means of the threat or use of force or other forms of coercion, of abduction, of fraud, of deception, of the abuse of power or of a position of vulnerability or of the giving or receiving of payments or benefits to achieve the consent of a person having control over another person, for the purpose of exploitation. Exploitation shall include, at a minimum, the exploitation of the
prostitution of others or other forms of sexual exploitation, forced labour or services, slavery or practices similar to slavery, servitude or the removal of organs;
(b) The consent of a victim of trafficking in persons to the intended exploitation set forth in subparagraph (a) of this article shall be irrelevant where any of the means set forth in subparagraph (a) have been used;
(c) The recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring or receipt of a child for the purpose of exploitation shall be considered “trafficking in persons” even if this does not involve any of the means set forth in subparagraph (a) of this article;
(d) “Child” shall mean any person under eighteen years of age
(a) “Trafficking in persons” shall mean the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring or receipt of persons, by means of the threat or use of force or other forms of coercion, of abduction, of fraud, of deception, of the abuse of power or of a position of vulnerability or of the giving or receiving of payments or benefits to achieve the consent of a person having control over another person, for the purpose of exploitation. Exploitation shall include, at a minimum, the exploitation of the
prostitution of others or other forms of sexual exploitation, forced labour or services, slavery or practices similar to slavery, servitude or the removal of organs;
(b) The consent of a victim of trafficking in persons to the intended exploitation set forth in subparagraph (a) of this article shall be irrelevant where any of the means set forth in subparagraph (a) have been used;
(c) The recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring or receipt of a child for the purpose of exploitation shall be considered “trafficking in persons” even if this does not involve any of the means set forth in subparagraph (a) of this article;
(d) “Child” shall mean any person under eighteen years of age
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