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WINNING THE FIGHT AGAINST HUMAN

TRAFFICKING: THE FREDERICK DOUGLASS

REAUTHORIZATION ACT

HEARING

BEFORE THE

SUBCOMMITTEE ON AFRICA, GLOBAL HEALTH, 

GLOBAL HUMAN RIGHTS, AND 

INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS

OF THE

COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN AFFAIRS 

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

ONE HUNDRED FIFTEENTH CONGRESS

FIRST SESSION

MAY 2, 2017

Serial No. 115–26

Printed for the use of the Committee on Foreign Affairs

(

Available via the World Wide Web: http://www.foreignaffairs.house.gov/ or

http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/

(II)

COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN AFFAIRS 

EDWARD R. ROYCE, California, Chairman 

CHRISTOPHER H. SMITH, New Jersey 

ILEANA ROS-LEHTINEN, Florida 

DANA ROHRABACHER, California 

STEVE CHABOT, Ohio 

JOE WILSON, South Carolina 

MICHAEL T. MCCAUL, Texas 

TED POE, Texas 

DARRELL E. ISSA, California 

TOM MARINO, Pennsylvania 

JEFF DUNCAN, South Carolina 

MO BROOKS, Alabama 

PAUL COOK, California 

SCOTT PERRY, Pennsylvania 

RON DESANTIS, Florida 

MARK MEADOWS, North Carolina 

TED S. YOHO, Florida 

ADAM KINZINGER, Illinois 

LEE M. ZELDIN, New York 

DANIEL M. DONOVAN, JR., New York 

F. JAMES SENSENBRENNER, JR., 

Wisconsin 

ANN WAGNER, Missouri 

BRIAN J. MAST, Florida 

FRANCIS ROONEY, Florida 

BRIAN K. FITZPATRICK, Pennsylvania 

THOMAS A. GARRETT, JR., Virginia 

ELIOT L. ENGEL, New York 

BRAD SHERMAN, California 

GREGORY W. MEEKS, New York 

ALBIO SIRES, New Jersey 

GERALD E. CONNOLLY, Virginia 

THEODORE E. DEUTCH, Florida 

KAREN BASS, California 

WILLIAM R. KEATING, Massachusetts 

DAVID N. CICILLINE, Rhode Island 

AMI BERA, California 

LOIS FRANKEL, Florida 

TULSI GABBARD, Hawaii 

JOAQUIN CASTRO, Texas 

ROBIN L. KELLY, Illinois 

BRENDAN F. BOYLE, Pennsylvania 

DINA TITUS, Nevada 

NORMA J. TORRES, California 

BRADLEY SCOTT SCHNEIDER, Illinois 

THOMAS R. SUOZZI, New York 

ADRIANO ESPAILLAT, New York 

TED LIEU, California

AMY PORTER, Chief of Staff THOMAS SHEEHY, Staff Director

JASON STEINBAUM, Democratic Staff Director 

SUBCOMMITTEE ON AFRICA, GLOBAL HEALTH, GLOBAL HUMAN RIGHTS, AND

INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS

CHRISTOPHER H. SMITH, New Jersey, Chairman 

MARK MEADOWS, North Carolina 

DANIEL M. DONOVAN, JR., New York 

F. JAMES SENSENBRENNER, JR., 

Wisconsin 

THOMAS A. GARRETT, JR., Virginia 

KAREN BASS, California 

AMI BERA, California 

JOAQUIN CASTRO, Texas 

THOMAS R. SUOZZI, New York 

(III)

C O N T E N T S 

Page

WITNESSES 

Mr. Robert Benz, co-founder and executive vice president, Frederick Douglass 

Family Initiatives ................................................................................................. 6

Ms. Jo Becker, advocacy director, Children’s Rights Division, Human Rights 

Watch .................................................................................................................... 11

Mr. Tim Gehring, policy and research manager, International Justice Mission ........................................................................................................................ 17

Ms. Melysa Sperber, director, Alliance to End Slavery and Trafficking ............. 23

Ms. Malika Saada Saar, human rights lawyer (co-founder and former executive director, Human Rights Project for Girls) .................................................. 46

LETTERS, STATEMENTS, ETC., SUBMITTED FOR THE HEARING 

Mr. Robert Benz: Prepared statement ................................................................... 8

Ms. Jo Becker: Prepared statement ....................................................................... 13

Mr. Tim Gehring: Prepared statement .................................................................. 19

Ms. Melysa Sperber: Prepared statement ............................................................. 26

Ms. Malika Saada Saar: Prepared statement ....................................................... 49

APPENDIX 

Hearing notice .......................................................................................................... 74

Hearing minutes ...................................................................................................... 75

Ms. Melysa Sperber: ATEST’s ‘‘A Presidential Agenda for Abolishing Modern 

Slavery and Human Trafficking’’ ........................................................................ 76

(1)

WINNING THE FIGHT AGAINST HUMAN 

TRAFFICKING: THE FREDERICK DOUGLASS 

REAUTHORIZATION ACT 

TUESDAY, MAY 2, 2017

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES,

SUBCOMMITTEE ON AFRICA, GLOBAL HEALTH,

GLOBAL HUMAN RIGHTS, AND INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS,

COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN AFFAIRS,

Washington, DC. 

The subcommittee met, pursuant to notice, at 2:06 p.m., in room 

2172, Rayburn House Office Building, Hon. Christopher H. Smith 

(chairman of the subcommittee) presiding. 

Mr. SMITH. The hearing will come to order. 

Good afternoon to everyone and welcome to our hearing on accelerating the fight against human trafficking, with particular focus 

on the new Frederick Douglass Trafficking Victims Prevention and 

Protection Act of 2017, the comprehensive bipartisan legislation 

that my friend and colleague Karen Bass and I introduced last 

Thursday, joined by Chairman Royce, Representatives Jackson Lee, 

Brooks, Frankel, Wagner, Cardenas, Poe, and Costello. 

As I think all of you know, in the fight to end modern-day slavery, this new bill honors the extraordinary legacy of one of the 

greatest Americans who ever lived. Born in 1818—we look forward 

to celebrating the 200th anniversary of his birth next year—Frederick Douglass escaped slavery when he was 20 and dedicated his 

entire life to abolishing slavery, and after emancipation, to ending 

the Jim Crow laws, while struggling for full equality for AfricanAmerican citizens. A gifted orator, author, editor, statesman, and 

as I pointed out at our press conference, he was a Republican, he 

died in 1895. 

We were honored to have Kenneth Morris, his great great greatgrandson, at our press conference last week, who made very incisive remarks about the importance of education, and reiterated 

what will be reiterated today, that knowledge makes a man unfit 

to be a slave. It is easier to build strong children than to repair 

broken men. That is some of the tremendous legacy of Frederick 

Douglass and the foundation that now bears his name and has 

been doing remarkable work for a decade. 

The Frederick Douglass Trafficking Victims Prevention and Protection Reauthorization Act authorizes $130 million over 4 years to 

prevent human trafficking, protect victims, and beef up prosecution 

at home and abroad. Among other things, I note that this bill enVerDate 0ct 09 2002 17:17 Jun 06, 2017 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6633 F:\WORK\_AGH\050217\25321 SHIRL
2

courages more hotels at home and abroad to put policies and 

trainings in place so that the hotels are less likely to be used by 

human traffickers to exploit children. To the extent practicable, the 

U.S. Government directs government travelers using taxpayer 

money to use hotels that have taken affirmative steps to end trafficking within their walls. 

The new bill seeks to restore the credibility of the Trafficking in 

Persons Report produced annually by the State Department to hold 

countries accountable for progress or the lack thereof in the fight 

against human trafficking. As we all know, talk is cheap, and 

many countries will have good, well-focused, talking points about 

what they are doing. We want to know what is happening on the 

ground, which is why the data calls that go out to our U.S. Embassies and the information we exchange between countries, our Embassies, and, of course, the TIP office have made a huge difference, 

all for the positive. 

The report, as we know, scrutinizes more than 190 countries, 

with the credible threat of serious sanctions for egregious violators 

that are branded Tier 3, to improve their trafficking laws and their 

actions. But in several notable cases, particularly in 2015, countries that should have been held accountable by the last administration with Tier 3 designations were given a pass. Countries such 

as Malaysia, Cuba, China, Oman, Uzbekistan, and others. 

That belief that they got it wrong was exposed in large part by 

a Reuters investigative report that found that the TIP office and 

its personnel had made recommendations to put these countries on 

Tier 3. At a different level of our chain of command, for political 

reasons, especially in the case of a country like Malaysia, because 

they would have been ineligible for TPP, which was a very active 

goal at the time, were not put on the Tier 3 sanctions list. 

The new bill tries to ensure that countries complicit in trafficking 

are always held accountable, no politics, ever, and will removed 

from current law the presumption that countries failing to quantify 

convictions and identify victims somehow deserve passing grades. 

IJM’s policy director, Tim Gehring, will underscore that concern in 

his testimony today stating,

The politicization of the tier rankings, against the advice 

of the anti-trafficking experts at TIP office is to the detriment of the annual report, the U.S. Government’s leadership on combating of human rights abuse, and, ultimately, 

to the people exploited in the countries which receive an 

undeserving higher ranking.

Last year alone, I chaired two hearings on this, the first, Accountability Over Politics: Scrutinizing the Trafficking in Persons 

Report in July and earlier in March of last year, Get It Right This 

Time: A Victims-Centered Trafficking in Persons Report. 

I was profoundly disappointed that the Obama administration 

chose to politicize tier rankings rather than speak truth to power. 

If the Trump administration follows that dangerous precedent, I 

can assure you I and many others will be no less a critic. 

The Frederick Douglass Act will also limit the amount of time a 

country can stay on the warning Tier 2 Watch List. Holly 

Burkhalter is here, and she worked so hard with us on the TrafVerDate 0ct 09 2002 17:17 Jun 06, 2017 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00006 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6633 F:\WORK\_AGH\050217\25321 SHIRL
3

ficking Prioritization Act, which in part would have focused on that 

issue. And what that will do, this provision, it would not be 4 years 

before their warning is up before they get relisted. It could be far 

sooner than that. The Frederick Douglass Act will ensure that 

countries still using child soldiers, such as Afghanistan, where boys 

are on the front line fighting the Taliban by day and being used 

as sex slaves at night, stop this obscene, horrific practice before 

being allowed to partner with the U.S. military, something Green 

Beret Sergeant First Class Charles Martland tried to do at great 

personal cost. 

The Frederick Douglass Act will ensure that waivers for countries using child soldiers are not abused. In 2016, only 3 of 10 countries designated as child soldiers were not allowed to access funds, 

and these were the countries we did not fund anyway. The act will 

ensure that the waiver is used only in cases where the President 

can ensure steps are being taken to address the recruitment and 

use of child soldiers. 

In addition, the act will help keep goods made by child trafficking victims out of the United States by ensuring continued 

funding for, and enhancing, the Department of Labor reports on 

slave-made goods. 

Provisions in the act will prevent the abuse of domestic servants 

in Embassies and diplomatic homes in the United States. Diplomats and their families in the U.S. are getting off scot-free after 

trafficking domestic servants in their homes, and we are trying to 

change that. Trafficking is illegal here no matter who you are. 

The act encourages accountability for U.S. Government funds 

going abroad to help trafficking victims, and strengthens implementation of U.S. laws and regulations to prevent government purchases from putting money in the hands of traffickers. It also 

amends our Elementary and Secondary Education Act to ensure 

that our students are forewarned or taught what to look for when 

it comes to trafficking. As many of our witnesses will say so eloquently today, prevention, prevention is key. 

Melysa Sperber makes the point that progress is lagging in the 

prevention area, that we have made progress on protection. We 

have made progress on prosecution of the traffickers, but there has 

been a lag that has been on the prevention side. 

I do want to, before yielding to Ms. Bass, thank so many who 

have worked so hard on this, including my staff, for the work that 

they have done, and Ms. Bass’ staff. And I just want to single out 

David Abramowitz is here, and I want to thank him for his decades-long efforts on behalf of human trafficking victims. 

And I would like to yield to Ms. Bass. 

Ms. BASS. Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. 

The Frederick Douglass Trafficking Victims Prevention and Protection Act builds upon the great work of the Trafficking Victims 

Protection Act, which was led by Chairman Smith. 

As the co-chair of the Congressional Caucus on Foster Youth and 

a member of the Caucus on Human Trafficking, I am particularly 

concerned about what we are doing to combat the devastating epidemic of young girls in the foster care system falling prey to child 

exploitation and sex trafficking. The intersection between involvement in child welfare and child sex trafficking has been docuVerDate 0ct 09 2002 17:17 Jun 06, 2017 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00007 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6633 F:\WORK\_AGH\050217\25321 SHIRL
4

mented by a number of organizations and agencies. It is estimated 

that well more than 60 percent of child victims of commercial sex 

exploitation have been in the foster care system. And we also know 

the average age of a girl entering into trafficking is 12 years old. 

One of the main reasons girls cannot escape is because they do 

not have safe and appropriate housing options. Because these girls 

are under the care of the Federal Government and the Federal 

Government in effect becomes their parent, then it is the responsibility to make sure that these girls do not fall between the cracks, 

and sadly, our Government has failed young girls in the foster care 

system by not intervening with aggressive effort to meet the 

unique and special needs of this vulnerable population. 

As we continue to tackle the growing epidemic of child sex trafficking in the United States, it is critically important that we focus 

on the special housing needs of young girls in the foster care system. 

In working with my colleagues on the drafting of the legislation, 

I wanted to make sure that we keep this focus by keeping the needle of Federal grant money aimed at providing long-term and trauma-informed housing assistance to disconnected youth and underserved women and girls between the ages of 10 and 24 who are 

homeless, in foster care, or are involved in the juvenile justice system. 

Current funding for housing and shelter for victims of child sex 

trafficking is insufficient to meet the growing demand of youth victims, especially young foster girls exploited through their emotional 

and financial vulnerabilities. In order to fully address the current 

housing crisis, the Federal Government needs to fully invest in providing safe and stable housing options and access and self-sustaining economic opportunities. The child welfare to sex trafficking 

pipeline must stop. We know that the majority of children that are 

trafficked are girls, but we also know that boys can be caught up 

in this as well. 

This bill is a good step forward in raising awareness of the collective and coordinated efforts required at every level of government 

to stop and prevent child sex trafficking. 

Mr. SMITH. Thank you, Ms. Bass. 

We do have three votes. And I regret, and I apologize to our distinguished witnesses. We will take a very brief recess while we go 

vote. 

I do want to thank Allison Hollabaugh for her work on this. Allison has been working tenaciously on all aspects of this, working 

with the stakeholders who care so deeply and have such good insights as to what is needed to make our trafficking efforts even 

more efficacious. 

And I do want to thank, I mentioned David Abramowitz; although he is not here, Ambassador Joseph Rees, who worked as 

such a great team of staffers on the original Trafficking Victims 

Protection Act. It took 3 years to get that law enacted. Some people 

thought we were a solution in search of a problem. It is not like 

it is today where there is a general understanding, although it is 

still never enough. But I want to thank all of you for your extraordinary help on this. 

5

We will take a brief respite. We will be back in about 15 or 20 

minutes. Thank you. 

[Recess.] 

Mr. SMITH. The subcommittee will resume its hearing. Again, I 

apologize for the delay. 

I would like to introduce our very distinguished panel of witnesses, beginning first with Mr. Robert Benz, who is co-founder 

and executive vice president of the Frederick Douglass Family Initiatives, where he is responsible for policy, programming, and strategic development. Mr. Benz led the development of FDFI’s core 

philosophy behind his prevention education approach to human 

trafficking and developed its One Million Abolitionists Project, 

which will print and give away 1 million copies of the bicentennial 

edition of the Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An 

American Slave, to young people across the country. And I have 

been promised a copy too, so thank you. Mr. Benz was also a founding partner in the PROTECT Human Trafficking Training and 

Education program in the State of California. 

We will then hear from Ms. Jo Becker, who is the advocacy director of the Children’s Rights Division at Human Rights Watch. As 

the founding chairperson of the International Coalition to Stop the 

Use of Child Soldiers, she helped campaign successfully for an 

international treaty banning the forced recruitment of children 

under the age of 18 or their use in armed conflict. She has conducted field investigations on children’s rights in Burma, Ghana, 

India, Indonesia, Morocco, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Uganda, and the 

United States. She is also an adjunct associate professor of international and public affairs at Columbia University and an awardwinning author of two books. 

We will then hear from Mr. Tim Gehring, who is the policy director for the International Justice Mission. Prior to this position, he 

served as the principal researcher for The Locust Effect, a Washington Post best seller about how violence against the poor perpetuates poverty. He holds a master’s in international economics and 

development from the University of Kentucky. He is a member of 

the IJM government relations team for the past 6 years. 

We will then hear from Ms. Melysa Sperber, who is the director 

of the Alliance to End Slavery and Trafficking, or ATEST. Melysa 

coordinates the coalition’s efforts to advocate for solutions to prevent and end all forms of human trafficking and modern slavery 

in the United States and overseas. Prior to joining ATEST, she was 

director of human rights at Vital Voices Global Partnership, where 

she implemented programs in more than 20 countries to combat violence against women, including human trafficking, domestic violence, and sexual violence. Melysa also previously served as a staff 

attorney at the Tahirih Justice Center, a nonprofit legal services 

agency that provides services to women fleeing gender-based persecution. 

And our final, last but not least, and we certainly look forward 

to her testimony, Ms. Malika Saada Saar, who is an accomplished 

human rights lawyer. She was the founder and the executive director of the Human Rights Project for Girls, a human rights organization focused on gender-based violence against young women and 

girls in the United States. She led the effort to shut down craigslist 

6

sex ads that served as the leading site for the trafficking of children for sex, ended the Federal practice of shackling pregnant 

mothers behind bars in the United States prisons, and successfully 

advocated for millions in Federal funding for treatment centers for 

at-risk families. 

Again, I thank you for your patience. Above all, I thank you for 

your advocacy and leadership and for taking the time to testify 

today. 

Mr. Benz. 

STATEMENT OF MR. ROBERT BENZ, CO-FOUNDER AND EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT, FREDERICK DOUGLASS FAMILY INITIATIVES 

Mr. BENZ. Good afternoon, Chairman Smith, Ranking Member 

Bass, and subcommittee members. Thank you for inviting me 

today. 

I am very happy to discuss the recently introduced Frederick 

Douglass Trafficking Victims Prevention and Protection Reauthorization Act. I love the sound of that. 

Frederick Douglass Family Initiatives, or FDFI, is an Atlantabased public charity that was founded by Nettie Washington Douglass, Kenneth B. Morris, Jr., and myself. Ms. Douglass has an incredible lineage. She is the great great-granddaughter of Frederick 

Douglass, and she is also the great-granddaughter of Booker T. 

Washington. Her eldest son, Mr. Morris, is, of course, one generation removed from these two influential Americans. 

Since 2007, FDFI has built upon those legacies in developing 

methods for addressing contemporary slavery through prevention 

education, professional training, and grassroots community collaboration. Our organization is guided by a philosophy that is articulated in those two famous quotes that you mentioned earlier, that 

knowledge makes a man unfit to be a slave, and that it is easier 

to build strong children than to repair broken men. 

We believe that the Frederick Douglass Act is a critical step to 

integrating these two ideas into anti-trafficking efforts, both domestically and abroad. 

The addition of the word ‘‘prevention’’ to the title of the bill gives 

us hope that more attention and more resources will be focused on 

what happens to a person, especially a child, before they become 

a victim of human trafficking. 

In order to begin reducing the numbers of new victims being exposed to the unforgiving cycle of exploitation, we must consider investing in primary prevention and early intervention strategies. To 

be clear, when we speak of primary prevention, we are referring to 

the application of knowledge in the form of education, training, 

and/or awareness initiatives for general populations. 

The cost benefits to taxpayers for preventing or mitigating 

human trafficking at an early stage are enormous. The human benefit for preventing someone from being victimized is incalculable. 

We are encouraged by the bill’s recommendation to amend language in the ESEA that will incentivize educating children on the 

signs and dangers of human trafficking. FDFI has firsthand experience doing this in primary and secondary schools, while collaborating with educators, law enforcement, service agencies, and 

7

NGOs. Through our curriculum, we help young people make the 

connection between historical and modern slavery, then ask them 

to take what they have learned and do something to address the 

problem in their communities. 

FDFI also develops training programs for educators, youth supervisors, and community professionals helping to build stronger and 

safer social structures around children. We are particularly proud 

of the prevention education and training program started in 2016 

called PROTECT, an acronym meaning Prevention Organized to 

Educate Children on Trafficking. It will be implemented in 35 of 

58 California counties by 2019. Our partners include 3 Strands 

Global, Love Never Fails, Polaris Project, and the California Department of Education. 

Together, we are creating a model that can be replicated elsewhere in the world that is holistic, cost efficient, and an effective 

way to keep children from being trafficked in communities from 

California to Khartoum. I have provided more details on PROTECT 

for the written record. 

The United States took a leadership role in anti-trafficking with 

the first Trafficking Victims Protection Act in 2000. We now have 

an opportunity to become the leader for innovative primary prevention strategies that we believe will incrementally reduce the numbers of young victims and allow us to envision eradicating contemporary slavery in the United States and around the world. We also 

hope that the endorsement of prevention within the Frederick 

Douglass Act will translate meaningfully into the design of the 

next strategic action plan on human trafficking. FDFI is enthusiastic about supporting and participating in these efforts. 

In the meantime, on behalf of the Frederick Douglass family, we 

look forward to collaborating with Federal legislators, agencies, and 

nonprofit organizations in our mutual struggle to end contemporary 

slavery. 

[The prepared statement of Mr. Benz follows:]

8


25321a-1.eps

Testimony of 

RobertJ. Benz, Co-Founder, Frederick Douglass Family Initiatives 

Before the 

Africa, Global Health, Global Human Rights, and International Organizations Subcommittee 

May 2, 2017 

Winning the Fight Against Human Trafficking: The Frederick Douglass Reauthorization Act 

Chairman, Smith, Ranking Member Bass and Subcommittee members, 

Thank you for inviting me today. My name is Robert Benz. I am Co-Founder of Frederick 

Douglass Family Initiatives. I'm happy to be here to discuss the recently introduced, Frederick 

Douglass Trafficking Victims Prevention and Protection Reauthorization Act. 

Frederick Douglass Family Initiatives, or FDFI, is an Atlanta-based public charity that was 

founded by Nettie Washington Douglass, Kenneth B. Morris, Jr. and myself. Ms. Douglass has an 

incredible lineage. She is the great-great granddaughter of Frederick Douglass and the greatgranddaughter of Booker T. Washington. Her eldest son, Mr. Morris, is, of course, one 

generation removed from these two influential Americans. 

Since 2007, FDFI has built upon those legacies in developing methods for addressing 

contemporary slavery through prevention education, professional training and grassroots 

community collaboration. Our organization is guided by a philosophy that is articulated in two 

famous quotes by Frederick Douglass: That "Knowledge makes a man unfit to be a slave" and 

that "It's easier to build strong children than to repair broken men." We believe the Frederick 

Douglass Act is a critical step to integrating these two ideas into anti-trafficking efforts, both 

domestically and abroad. The addition of the word "Prevention" to the title of the bill gives us 

hope that more attention and more resources will be focused on what happens to a person, 

especially a child, before they become a victim of human trafficking. 

In order to begin reducing the numbers of new victims being exposed to the unforgiving cycle 

of exploitation, we must consider investing in primary prevention and early intervention 

strategies. To be clear, when we speak of primary prevention, we are referring to the 

application of knowledge in the form of education, training and/or awareness initiatives for 

general populations. The cost benefits to taxpayers, for preventing or mitigating human 

trafficking at an early stage, are enormous. The human benefit for preventing someone from 

being victimized is incalculable. 

We are encouraged by the bill's recommendation to amend language in the ESEA that will 

incentivize educating children on the signs and dangers of human trafficking. FDFI has firsthand 

experience doing this in primary and secondary schools while collaborating with educators, law 

enforcement, service agencies and NGOs. Through our curriculum, we help young people make 
9


25321a-2.eps

the connection between historical and modern slavery then ask them to take what they've 

learned and do something to address the problem. 

One example is Jamelia Watson who, last year, participated in an FDFI curricular project at her 

Cincinnati high school and, this year, started an anti-trafficking organization at Vassar College 

called, The Underground. 

Our social studies class learned about human trafficking during my senior year of high 

school when my teacher used the Globalize 13 curriculum developed by FDFI. I've taken 

that knowledge, and the privilege I hove in attending college, and started on 

organization on my campus to educate others about this horrible crime. 

Jamelia Watson 

FDFI has done work in school districts across the country: from a partnership with Mayor 

Bloomberg's office for New York City Public Schools and Chicago Public Schools with the 

support of Mayor Daley to small rural districts in Nebraska and Idaho. FDFI partners 

internationally as well with the Frederick Douglass Ireland Project to educate young people in 

Ireland about Douglass's time there. 

FDFI also develops training programs for educators, youth supervisors and community 

professionals helping to build stronger and safer social structures around children. We're 

particularly proud of a prevention education and training program, started in 2016, called 

PROTECT- an acronym meaning Prevention Organized to Educate Children on Trafficking. It will 

be implemented in 35 of 58 California counties by 2019. Our partners include; 3 Strands Global, 

Love Never Fails, Polaris Project and the California Department of Education. Together we're 

creating a model that can be replicated elsewhere in the world that is holistic, cost efficient and 

an effective way to keep children from being trafficked in communities from California to 

Khartoum. I've provide more details on PROTECT for the written record. 

PROTECT is deployed in four parts: 1) Protocol-In order to make sure that county agencies and 

other partners are coordinated in their efforts to address human trafficking, there must be 

agreement as to what happens if and when a child is identified as a potential victim of human 

trafficking and who does what, 2) Training- We train county personnel, who might be involved 

with those victims or potential victims, as well as administrators, school staff and teachers. 

Training involves understanding the issue of human trafficking, causation, the kinds of 

trafficking in that particular area, the historical connection to slavery, red flags, the protocol 

and, for specific teachers, how to deliver the curriculum in the classroom, 3) Curriculum- We 

provide age-appropriate content within our curricula that meets state learning standards for 

grade 5, 7, 9 and 11. We also ask 111

h graders to develop a service project in their community to 

apply the knowledge they've gained on the subject, and 4) Research- All of the training and 

curriculum are accompanied by pre- and post-surveys that help us better understand how 

students and adults are receiving and reacting to the program and how the materials can be 

improved. We want to understand how education and training can reduce the incidence of 
10


25321a-3.eps

trafficking. All of this is done with the help of technology as scalability is essential to reach 

larger numbers of people. Students that are experiencing personal issues related to abuse or 

exploitation are encouraged to disclose this an adult, but they are also given the option of 

reaching out anonymously to the National Human Trafficking Hotline which is supplemented by 

our local partner, TipNow. The program is being funded, in large part, by the Rural Counties 

Representatives of California and has been supported since day one by the Office of the 

Attorney General of the State of California and California State University, Sacramento. 

The United States took a leadership role in anti-trafficking with the first Trafficking Victims 

Protection Act of 2000. We now have an opportunity to become the leader for innovative 

primary prevention strategies that we believe will incrementally reduce the numbers of young 

victims and allow us to envision eradicating contemporary slavery in the US and around the 

world. 

We also hope that the endorsement of prevention within the Frederick Douglass Act will 

translate meaningfully into the design of the next Strategic Action Plan on Human Trafficking. 

FDFI is enthusiastic about supporting and participating in these efforts. 

In the meantime, on behalf of the Frederick Douglass family, we look forward to collaborating 

with federal legislators, agencies and non-profit organizations in our mutual struggle to end 

contemporary slavery. 
11

Mr. SMITH. Mr. Benz, thank you very much for your testimony. 

Ms. Becker. 

STATEMENT OF MS. JO BECKER, ADVOCACY DIRECTOR, 

CHILDREN’S RIGHTS DIVISION, HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH 

Ms. BECKER. Chairman Smith, Ranking Member Bass, and members of the subcommittee, thank you for the opportunity to testify 

today regarding the Frederick Douglass Reauthorization Act and to 

specifically address how this bill will help the United States more 

effectively curtail the recruitment and use of child soldiers around 

the globe. 

One of the most tragic aspects of contemporary warfare is the 

participation of children: As spies, as lookouts, as guards, as cooks, 

and very often on the front lines of combat. The ranks of child soldiers include young girls forced to carry out suicide attacks by Boko 

Haram in Nigeria, children lured to fight in Syria by promises of 

money, and boys in South Sudan who join fighting forces after 

their schools have been destroyed and they lose all hope of education. 

I have worked on the issue of child soldiers for nearly 20 years, 

and during that time, I have seen both positive and negative developments. Some of the good news is that since 2000, more than 

100,000 child soldiers have been released or demobilized from national armed forces and armed groups. The number of countries 

where children are actively fighting has dropped by a third, and at 

least 26 governments and armed groups have signed action plans 

with the United Nations to end their use of child soldiers. 

But at the same time, in some countries, the situation is getting 

much worse. In Yemen, for example, the U.N. reported that the 

rate of child recruitment increased fivefold in just 1 year. In Afghanistan, child recruitment doubled between 2014 and 2015. In 

South Sudan, at least 16,000 children have been recruited as soldiers in the past 3 years alone. 

The United States has played an important role in helping to 

curtail the use of child soldiers. The U.S. exerted leadership in 

2002 by ratifying the U.N. treaty that prohibits the use of children 

in hostilities. After ratification, all branches of the armed services 

immediately issued new rules to keep underage soldiers out of combat, and this helped to set an important and positive example for 

other militaries worldwide. 

Congress, to its great credit, decided to tackle the issue further 

in 2008, when it adopted the Child Soldiers Prevention Act as part 

of the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act that year. 

The principle behind the Child Soldiers Prevention Act is simple. 

Foreign governments should not get U.S. military assistance if they 

use or support the use of child soldiers. This law applies to six categories of U.S. military funding, including foreign military financing, direct commercial sales, and foreign military sales. 

The Child Soldiers Prevention Act sends a very powerful message. If you want U.S. military assistance, you can’t use child soldiers. This legislation was first proposed by Senators Sam 

Brownback of Kansas and Richard Durbin of Illinois. It garnered 

strong bipartisan support and was signed into law by President 

George W. Bush. 

12

The law requires the State Department to issue a list every year 

of the governments that are involved in the use of child soldiers. 

Since the law was implemented in 2010, the list has varied between 6 and 10 governments. Five have been listed every single 

year: Burma, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Somalia, 

Sudan, and Yemen. 

Now, under the Child Soldiers Prevention Act, we have seen several success stories, but uneven implementation of the law has also 

resulted in many missed opportunities. One success story is the 

Democratic Republic of the Congo. At the height of Congo’s war in 

the 1990s, 30,000 children were fighting on all sides of the conflict. 

The U.N. tried for 7 years to try and get Congo to sign an action 

plan to end their use of child soldiers and failed. But after the 

Obama administration announced that it was withholding foreign 

military financing and training of a battalion under the Child Soldiers Prevention Act, Congo took only 5 days to sign an action plan, 

and since then their recruitment of children by government forces 

has dropped to almost zero. 

So this example shows the potential of the law to effect change, 

but unfortunately there have been many other missed opportunities. 

Mr. Chairman, earlier you said that too many governments are 

being given a pass, and when it comes to child soldiers, unfortunately that is the case. The law allows the President to issue national security waivers that allow countries to continue receiving 

aid, even if they have done little or even nothing to curb their use 

of child soldiers. Congress intended these waivers to be used in exceptional cases, but unfortunately they have become more the norm 

than the exception. 

The Stimson Center found that President Obama used these 

waivers in 60 percent of all cases and that 95 percent of the aid 

that would normally be withheld by the law was allowed to go 

through. As a result, governments using child soldiers have very 

little incentive to take the law seriously and to stop exploiting children. 

The Frederick Douglass Reauthorization Act is going to make important amendments to the Child Soldiers Prevention Act, and will 

help ensure that this law is used for its intended purpose while 

still maintaining flexibility. The Frederick Douglass Reauthorization Act will help reduce the use of waivers for countries that have 

done nothing to address their use of child soldiers, and will provide 

for much greater transparency on how the act is implemented. 

These provisions will go a long way in enabling the U.S. to be 

much more effective in ending the exploitation of children as soldiers around the world. 

Thank you very much. 

[The prepared statement of Ms. Becker follows:]

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Winning the Fight Against Human Trafficking: 

The Frederick Douglass Reauthorization Act 

Written testimony submitted to the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, 

Subcommittee on Africa, Global Health, Global Human Rights, and International 

Organizations 

Tuesday, May 2, 2017 

Jo Becker, Children's Rights Advocacy Director, Human Rights Watch 

I want to thank the members oft he Subcommittee for the opportunity to submit 

written testimony regarding the Frederick Douglass Reauthorization Act, and 

specifically, how it will help the United States more effectively curtail the recruitment 

and use of child soldiers around the globe. 

One ofthe most tragic aspects of contemporary warfare is the participation of 

children-as spies, lookouts, guards, cooks, and very often, on the front-line of combat. 

The ranks of child soldiers include young girls forced to carry out suicide attacks by Boko 

Haram in Nigeria, children lured to fight in Syria by promises of money, and boys in 

South Sudan who join fighting forces after their schools have been destroyed. 

According to the United Nations, children were actively recruited or participating in 

conflicts in at least 18 countries in 2015\ in the majority of these countries, government 

forces were implicated, either by recruiting and using children in their own ranks, or 

supporting allied militias that use child soldiers. Human Rights Watch has documented 

the recruitment and use of child soldiers-by governmental armed forces or nongovernmental armed groups (and in most cases, both)-in at least 20 countries since 

1994. 

I've worked on the issue of child soldiers for nearly 20 years, and during that time have 

seen both positive and negative developments. Some of the good news is that since 

2000, over 100,000 child soldiers have been released or demobilized from national 

armed forces and armed groups, the number of countries where children are actively 

fighting has dropped by a third, and at least 26 governments and armed groups have 

signed United Nations action plans to end their use of child soldiers. 

1 Afghanistan, Central African Republic, Colombia, Democratic Republic of Congo, India, Iraq, Lebanon, Libya, Mali, 

Myanmar, Nigeria, Pakistan, Philippines, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, Syria, Yemen. 

1 
14


25321b-2.eps

But in some countries, the situation is becoming much worse. In Yemen, for example, 

the UN reported that the rate of child recruitment increased five-fold in just one year 

{2014-2015). In Afghanistan, child recruitment doubled between 2014 and 2015. In 

South Sudan, at least 16,000 children have been recruited as soldiers in the past three 

years. 

The United States has played an important role in helping to curtail use of child soldiers. 

The US exerted leadership in 2002 by ratifying the UN treaty that prohibits the use of 

children in hostilities. After ratification, all branches of the armed services immediately 

issued new rules to keep under-age soldiers out of combat. This has helped to set a 

positive example for other militaries worldwide. 

Congress, to its great credit, decided to tackle the issue further in 2008, when it adopted 

the Child Soldiers Prevention Act. The United States was one of the first countries in the 

world to enact such groundbreaking legislation. The principle behind the Child Soldiers 

Prevention Act is simple: foreign governments should not get US military assistance if 

they use or support the use of child soldiers. The law applies to six categories of US 

military assistance, including foreign military financing, direct commercial sales, and 

foreign military sales. 2 

The Child Soldiers Prevention Act sends the powerful message that if you want US 

military assistance, you can't use child soldiers. This legislation, first proposed by 

Senators Sam Brown back of Kansas and Senator Dick Durbin of Illinois, garnered strong 

bipartisan support and was signed into law by President George W. Bush. 

The law requires the State Department to issue a list every year of governments 

involved in the use of child soldiers. Since the law came into effect in 2010, the list has 

included 6 to 10 countries. Five have been listed every year: Burma, the Democratic 

Republic of Congo, Somalia, Sudan, and Yemen. 

Under the Child Soldiers Prevention Act, we've seen several success stories, but uneven 

implementation ofthe law has also resulted in many missed opportunities. 

One success story is the Democratic Republic of Congo. At the height of Congo's war, an 

estimated 30,000 children were fighting on all sides of the conflict. The government has 

a long history of child soldier use and even promoted military officers who were charged 

or convicted of using child soldiers to high-ranking positions. Congo has been on the 

State Department's list of governments using child soldiers since the list's inception in 

2010. In 2011, the administration announced that under the Child Soldiers Prevention 

'The CSPA prohibits US military assistance from the following accounts: International Military Education 

and Training (I MET), Foreign Military Financing (FMF), Direct Commercial Sales (DCS), Foreign Military 

Sales (FMS), Excess Defense Articles (EDA), Section 1206; Peacekeeping Operations. 

2 
15


25321b-3.eps

Act, it would withhold foreign military financing from the Congo due to its use of child 

soldiers. In 2012, it announced that in addition to withholding foreign military financing, 

it would also withhold training from a Congolese battalion until Congo signed an action 

plan with the UN to end its use of child soldiers. Congo had been dragging its feet for 

seven years on signing the plan, but agreed to its terms only five days after the US 

announcement. Since then, recruitment of children by government forces has dropped 

to almost zero. 

Another positive example of the Child Soldiers Prevention Act's impact is Rwanda. The 

State Department placed Rwanda on its list in 2013 due to its support for the M23, an 

armed group operating in eastern Congo. With Rwandan backing, the M23 had forcibly 

recruited large numbers of children into its forces and carried out brutal abuses against 

civilians. In September 2013, the administration applied full sanctions on Rwanda under 

the CSPA, withholding foreign military financing and military training. Only a few weeks 

later, the M23 surrendered and laid down its weapons. Although part of the M23's 

defeat was due to Congolese military operations with the support of the UN 

peacekeeping force, mounting pressure on Rwanda to stop supporting the M23 played a 

crucial role. After aid suspensions from the US and most other major donors to Rwanda, 

and phone calls to Rwandan President Paul Kagame from Secretary of State John Kerry, 

the Rwandan government may have concluded that its support to the M23 had become 

too damaging to its public image. 

A third example is Chad. Chad was included on the State Department's Child Soldiers 

Prevention Act list in 2010, 2011, and 2013. Although the administration never imposed 

sanctions under the Act against Chad, it raised the issue of child soldiers at senior levels 

and used the threat of sanctions to persuade Chad to implement its action plan with the 

UN to end the use of child soldiers. No new cases of child recruitment by Chadian forces 

have been reported for over two years, and Chad was removed in 2014 from both the 

State Department's list and the UN Secretary-General's list of violators. 

These examples show the potential of the law to effect change. But unfortunately, there 

have been many more missed opportunities. The law allows the president to issue 

national security waivers that allow countries to continue receiving aid even if they have 

done little or nothing to curb their use of child soldiers. Congress intended these 

waivers to be used in exceptional cases, but unfortunately, they became more the norm 

than the exception. The Stimson Center found that President Obama used these waivers 

in 60 percent of all cases and that 95 percent ofthe aid affected by the law-more than 

$1.2 billion-was allowed to go through. 3 As a result, governments have little incentive 

to take the law seriously and stop exploiting children. 

3 Stimson Center, U.S. Military Assistance to Governments Using or Supporting the Use of Child Soldiers FYlO- FY16 

under the Child Soldiers Prevention Act 

https:/ /www.stimson.org/sites/defauit/files/FY2017%20CSPA%20D:ata%202.pdf; see also Rachel Stohl and Shannon 

Dick, "President Trump, you can stop the use of child soldiers," CNN.com, April26, 2017, 

http://www .en n .com/2017 /04/26/ opinion s/tru mp-ch i ld-so I die rs-o pi ni on-stohl-di ck/i ndex. htm I 

3 
16


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The Frederick Douglass Reauthorization Act will help ensure the law is used for its 

intended purpose, while still maintaining flexibility. In particular, it will do the following: 

Provide that if a country receives a presidential waiver under the Act, the 

President must certify to appropriate congressional committees that the 

government is taking "effective and continuing steps" to address the problem of 

child soldiers; 

Refine the definitions under the act to clarify that government-supported police 

or other security forces that recruit or use child soldiers are to be covered by the 

Child Soldiers Prevention Act; 

Provide a timeframe of 45 days for the Secretary of State to notify affected 

governments that they have been identified as subject to the Child Soldiers 

Prevention Act; 

Require continued annual reporting on implementation of the Act beyond the 

first five years of its implementation, including information on the type and the 

monetary amount of assistance that has been withheld under the Act, as well as 

the type and the monetary amount of assistance that has been allowed through 

use of waivers. 

These amendments will make the Child Soldiers Prevention Act more effective in several 

important respects. They will help reduce the use of waivers for countries that have 

done nothing to address their use of child soldiers, will ensure that all governmentsupported entities that take an active part in hostilities during an armed conflict are 

considered for listing under the Child Soldiers Prevention Act, and will provide for much 

more transparency on how the Act is implemented. If adopted, these amendments will 

enable the US to be much more effective in ending the exploitation of children as 

soldiers around the world. 

Thank you. 

4 
17

Mr. SMITH. Thank you very much, Ms. Becker. 

I would like to now yield to Mr. Gehring. 

STATEMENT OF MR. TIM GEHRING, POLICY AND RESEARCH 

MANAGER, INTERNATIONAL JUSTICE MISSION 

Mr. GEHRING. Thank you, Chairman Smith, and thank you, 

Ranking Member Bass, for holding the hearing and giving me the 

opportunity to testify today. I would also like to take the opportunity to thank your staff, who worked relentlessly and with sincere passion to craft a bill that takes a comprehensive approach to 

address the needs of all victims, both here in the United States and 

abroad, children and adults, men and women from all types of exploitation. 

I am honored to be here on behalf of International Justice Mission, a human rights agency that works to increase the capacity of 

public justice systems around the world to respond to violent crime, 

including forced labor and sexual exploitation. We collaborate with 

courts, police, prosecutors, judges, and social workers around the 

world to rescue victims, hold perpetrators accountable through investigations, arrests, prosecutions, and restore survivors. 

IJM has seen broken justice systems improve dramatically by 

ending impunity for crimes and providing a deterrence for trafficking and slavery. 

The Frederick Douglass Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act of 2017 is the sixth iteration of the original Trafficking 

Victims Protection Act, a bill that, thanks to your leadership, 

Chairman Smith, was authorized almost 2 decades ago. And from 

IJM’s perspective, the TVPA and its subsequent authorizations 

have been transformative in ways that other human rights legislation has not because Congress has been engaged in close oversight 

since the legislation was first enacted. 

Similarly, Congress supported the Office to Monitor and Combat 

Trafficking in Persons in the State Department, including by increasing its grant and administration budget, holding regular hearings, and its willingness to protest politicization of the rankings in 

the annual Trafficking in Persons Report has been extremely helpful in cementing the policies of the TVPA. It has strengthened the 

hand of the TIP office, it has strengthened the U.S. anti-slavery 

policy, and it has strengthened slavery-burdened countries’ efforts 

to prevent, protect, and prosecute trafficking in persons. 

The minimum standards that were articulated in the original 

TVPA and that have been maintained for the past 2 decades have 

given U.S. diplomats a consistent foundation for engaging governments on the steps required to meet the international anti-trafficking standards of which the TVPA was based. Seventeen years 

after the original TVPA was authorized, countries are well aware 

of what those standards are, and it is important that we do not 

move the goalposts. Doing so risks losing the leverage that the TIP 

office and its dedicated staff has built over many years of engagement. Rather, the reporting process should be strengthened, and 

we should hold the countries accountable for showing concrete action and credible evidence to justify their tier rankings. And I am 

encouraged that the legislation includes many of these provisions 

that provide more granularity and transparency. 

18

It is worth emphasizing, however, that the politicized rankings 

such as Malaysia’s upgrade in 2015 that you referred to, Chairman 

Smith, didn’t occur because U.S. law was unclear. It occurred because other interests prevailed over factual accounting. Therefore, 

the fix for this problem isn’t always legal or legislative. It is rather 

that the entire State Department needs to put its weight and will 

in an accurate and candid report, and helping governments make 

progress. 

Many of the struggles between Congress and the executive 

branch have been over the Tier 2 Watch List ranking Chairman 

Smith, this is an issue you spoke to earlier, especially preventing 

Tier 2 Watch List countries from becoming a purgatory for poorly 

performing countries that the State Department doesn’t want to 

downgrade to Tier 3. And the reason that the State Department 

doesn’t want to put countries on Tier 3 is because it is largely 

viewed as the pariah’s club, populated almost entirely by countries 

that the U.S. has strained diplomatic relationships with: North 

Korea, Iran, Syria, Venezuela. 

And, indeed, all of these countries have significant trafficking in 

persons problems, but the perception is that Tier 3 has become a 

dumping ground for countries that the U.S. doesn’t like for other 

reasons. And consigning friendly countries to this list then becomes 

quite problematic, and the regional bureaus within the State Department are then reluctant to do so. But if Tier 3 and the other 

tier rankings were simply an accurate assessment of the government’s TIP performance, it wouldn’t need to be dramatic or disruptive. It would just be a statement of fact. 

The politicization of the tier rankings against the advice of the 

anti-trafficking in persons experts at the TIP office is to the detriment of the annual report. It is to the detriment of the U.S. Government’s leadership on combating this human rights abuse. And, 

ultimately, it is to the detriment of the people in these countries 

which receive an undeserved higher ranking. 

The U.S. Government has a number of diplomatic and political 

tools to support allied countries, but rewarding them with 

undeserved rankings in the TIP Report should not be one of them. 

IJM has provided rescue to over 34,000 people from violent oppression in the past several years. We have seen how the TIP Report makes an actual difference in people’s lives, when it spurs 

countries to action, and when it impacts the realities of actual people. So it is imperative that the rankings of each country also be 

based in reality. 

Thank you, Mr. Chairman and Ranking Member Bass. I look forward to your questions. 

[The prepared statement of Mr. Gehring follows:]

19


25321c-1.eps

f-'0 80;< 

\:Vashingt::-1r, 20037 

703.465.5405 

Testimony of Tim Gehring, Policy Director 

lnternational.Justice Mission 

House Subcommittee on Africa, Global Health, Global Human Rights and International 

Organizations 

May2, 2016 

Thank you, Chairman Smith and the entire Subcommittee, for the opportunity to testify today 

on the issue of trafficking in persons and Frederick Douglass Trafficking Victims Protection Act 

of 2017. I would also like to take the opportunity to thank your staff who worked relentlessly and 

with sincere passion to craft a bill that takes a comprehensive approach to address the needs of 

all victims, both here in the United States and abroad, children and adults, men and women 

from all types of exploitation. 

I am honored to be here today speaking on behalf of lnternational.Justice Mission, a global 

human rights agency that works to increase the ability of justice systems to protect vulnerable 

populations from violence, including forced labor and sexual exploitation. We have provided 

relief to over 34,000 people from violent oppression by collaborating with police, courts, 

prosecutors, judges and social workers around the world to rescue victims, hold perpetrators 

accountable through investigations, arrests, and prosecutions, and restore survivors. IJM has 

seen broken justice systems improve dramatically by ending impunity for trafficking crimes and 

providing a deterrence for trafficking and slavery. 

Rather than providing you 'Nith stories from I.JM clients who have endured horrific abuse and 

violence, I would like to focus on the change that is possible with the leadership of the United 

States Government -leadership that, I believe, is irreplaceable in combatting this crime around 

the world. Chairman Smith, thanks to your leadership almost two decades ago, Congress passed 

the original Trafficking Victims Protect act of 2000, which identified trafficking in persons as a 

priority for the United States Government and brought about much-needed foreign assistance to 

help countries improve their response to trafficking in persons. Other iterations of the 

Trafficking Victims Protection Act have created innovative anti-trafficking programs like the 

Child Protection Compact, which is being implemented in Ghana and, most recently, the 

Philippines, to work collaboratively 'Nith selected countries, to identify gaps and weaknesses in 

anti-trafficking programs and policies, and to equip, train, and support effective law 

enforcement operations to rescue children from exploitation and abuse and restore them to a 
20


25321c-2.eps

safe childhood, apprehend perpetrators, and substantially lessen the crime by creating effective 

deterrence. 

The TVPA of 2000 also established the Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons in 

the U.S. State Department and annual Trafficking in Persons Report, embedding anti-trafficking 

priorities within U.S. diplomatic efforts. The Trafficking in Person's Office, under the direction 

of an Ambassador-at Large, leads the U.S. Government"s global engagement on human 

trafficking and slavery with foreign governments, international organizations, the private sector 

and civil society. The staff at the TIP Office are dedicated public servants who represent the very 

best of American values and ideals -we should be extraordinarily proud of them. The grants 

administered by the Trafficking in Persons Office are the U.S. Government's primary foreign 

assistance to combat trafficking and slavery and assist foreign governments meet the minimum 

standards of care and address the failings identified in the Trafficking in Persons Report. The 

release of the annual Trafficking in Persons Report is instrumental in identifying gaps in 

government response and encouraging governments to achieve the minimum standards of 

addressing trafficking in persons. 

When the State Department's regional bureaus, the TIP Office, and our Embassies communicate 

a consistent message on trafficking and slavery, U.S. diplomacy can have a remarkable impact 

on combatting trafficking in persons. IJM has seen firsthand through our collaboration with 

local government authorities how a consistent approach to the in the tier rankings creates clear 

expectations and strong motivation for countries seeking to improve their ranking. My colleague 

who led TJM's work throughout Asia and now oversees all of our international programs once 

said testified in front of this subcommittee that he has seen no action of a Western government 

that is more effective at anything than the annual release of the Trafficking in Persons Report by 

the State Department. 

Consider Cambodia and the Philippines- two countries where IJM has seen dramatic 

improvement in the enforcement of anti-trafficking laws and the concrete actions taken by those 

governments to protect its children from sexual exploitation. When I.JM began operating in 

these countries, there was near total impunity for perpetrators who would openly exploit young 

children. 

T.JM collaborated with these governments to develop and implement effective models of 

protection and prosecution, but it was through strong U.S. diplomacy, particularly dedicated US 

Ambassadors and State Department's accurate tier ranking process in the annual Report that 

continued to bring the issue to the attention of the Cambodian and Filipino Government 

encouraging them to take concrete actions to keep children safe. UM's project areas in these 

countries have seen a dramatic decrease in the availability of minors being exploited by 79, 75 

and 86% thanks to the improved response of the justice system Vl,jthin these countries. 

This, of course, is notto say that the issue oftrafficking is solved in these two countries. 

Cambodia still faces challenges to maintain the gains that have been made to reduce child sex 

trafficking and to address domestic and cross-border labor trafficking. The Philippines must 

confront a growing industry of online exploitation. But there is now a reliable, predictable 

government response to sex trafficking in both countries where there used to be none. The 

Cambodian and Filipino Governments deserve an immense amount of credit for their efforts to 

address the exploitation of children- but so does the United States Government for using the 

tools available through the Trafficking in Persons Report to spur these countries to improve. 
21


25321c-3.eps

vVhile the Trafficking in Persons Report is mostly objective and accurate in its ran kings, at times 

considerations other than a country's efforts to eradicate trafficking influence a country's 

rankings- typically at the urging of others in the State Department rather than the antitrafficking experts at the Trafficking in Persons Office. In 2015, according to an examination by 

Reuters the TIP Office was overruled by others in the State Department on 14 of 17 disputed 

rankings, giving the countries a higher ranking than was recommended by the specialists at the 

TIP Office. 

The politicization oft he tier ran kings, against the advice ofthe anti-trafficking experts at TTP 

Office is to the detriment of the annual Report, the U.S. Government's leadership on combatting 

this human rights abuse, and, ultimately, to the people exploited in the countries which receive 

an undeserved higher ranking. The U.S. Government has a many number of diplomatic and 

political tools to support allied countries, but rewarding them with undeserved rankings in the 

TIP report should not be one of them. 

The minimum standards that were articulated in the original TVPA and maintained for the two 

decades have given U.S. diplomats a solid foundation for engaging governments on the 

minimum steps required to meet the international anti-trafficking requirements on which the 

TVPA standards are based. It is important not to move the goal posts: country governments 

know what those standards are; changing these standards risks losing the leverage that the TIP 

Office has built over its many years of engagement. 

Having said that, there are useful changes that could be made to maintain the minimum 

standards while at the same time strengthening the reporting process. As demonstrated by the 

examples of Cambodia and the Philippines, it is not just the enactment of laws or the promise of 

future action that makes a difference- it is enforcement of those laws that protect vulnerable 

people and create a deterrent for these crimes from ever occurring. As such, when considering 

justification for appropriate tier ran kings for each country, Congress should require the State 

Department concrete action and credible evidence that demonstrates improvements in a 

country's efforts, such as active investigations, prosecution conducted, convictions attained, 

trainings provided, active programs and partnerships, victim services offered including 

immigration services and restitution, and the amount of money the government in question has 

committed to these actions. 

But even while we support these proposed changes, it is worth reiterating that politicized 

rankings, such as Malaysia's upgrade last year, did not occur because U.S.lawwas unclear. It 

occurred because other interests prevailed over factual accounting. The "fix" for that problem 

isn't legal or legislative, it is rather for the entire State Department to put its weight and will into 

reporting candidly, and helping governments make progress. 

Many of the struggles between Congress and the Executive branch have been over the 

Tier2Watch ranking. Chairman Smith among others has taken steps to prevent it from being a 

"holding pen" for poorly performing countries that the State Department doesn't want to 

downgrade to Tier 3. The reason the State Department doesn't want to dov.mgrade a country to 

Tier 3, even when the facts warrant it, is because Tier 3 appears to be populated almost entirely 

by countries that the U.S. doesn't like for other reasons. Consigning friendly countries to this 

list then becomes quite problematic and the regional bureaus within the State Department are 

reluctant to do so. But if Tier 3 was simply an accurate assessment based on governments TIP 

performance, rather a losers club of North Korea, Iran, Venezuela and Syria, it needn't be a 

dramatic or disruptive gesture: just a statement of fact. 
22


25321c-4.eps

In closing, I would like to stress the importance of Congressional oversight and engagement on 

trafficking and slavery policy. In our estimation, the Trafficking Victims Protection Act and the 

work of the Trafficking in Persons Office have been transformative -in ways that other human 

rights legislation has not- because Congress has engaged in close oversight since the legislation 

was first enacted. Congress's support of the TIP Office, including by increasing its budget, 

holding regular hearings, and its willingness to protest politicization of the ran kings has been 

extremely helpful. It has strengthened the hand of the TIP Office, it has strengthened U.S. antislavery policy, and it helps countries that are burdened by slavery. 

Thank you, Mr. Chairman and other members of the Subcommittee, for the opportunity to 

testify and your prioritization of this issue, and I look forward to take your questions. 
23

Mr. SMITH. Thank you very much, Mr. Gehring. I would just note 

for the record that Gary Haugen testified right here when we were 

working on the original Trafficking Victims Protection Act, and his 

insights were of tremendous value in shaping the original bill, all 

the subsequent iterations of it. As a matter of fact, we have a copy. 

It was September 14, 1999. And so if you could pass on to him the 

subcommittee’s gratitude, my personal gratitude, for his leadership 

years to date. It has been extraordinary. 

Mr. GEHRING. Thank you. 

Mr. SMITH. Ms. Sperber. 

STATEMENT OF MS. MELYSA SPERBER, DIRECTOR, ALLIANCE 

TO END SLAVERY AND TRAFFICKING 

Ms. SPERBER. Thank you. 

Mr. Chairman, Ranking Member Bass, thank you for holding this 

hearing on one of the most intractable human rights violations of 

our time, the crime of human trafficking. And thank you for the opportunity to testify today. I also echo Tim’s gratitude to your staff 

for their hard work. 

Mr. Chairman, I am the director of the Alliance to End Slavery 

and Trafficking. ATEST is a coalition of 13 human rights organizations that advocates for solutions to prevent and end all forms of 

human trafficking and modern slavery around the world. ATEST 

is supported by Humanity United and Humanity United Action. 

Mr. Chairman, my written statement outlines the progress we 

are making, as well as noting ways the U.S. Government should invest in programming and implement policy solutions that will reduce vulnerability to human trafficking worldwide. I ask that my 

full statement be made a part of the record. 

Mr. SMITH. Without objection, yours and that of all of our distinguished witnesses, and any additional material you think the subcommittee should have in its record. Without objection, so ordered. 

Ms. SPERBER. Thank you. 

I also would draw the subcommittee’s attention to ATEST’s Presidential Agenda for Abolishing Modern Slavery and Human Trafficking. It has many important recommendations that apply to 

Congress, as well as the new administration. And thank you so 

much for agreeing for it to be part of the record. 

Today, I will focus my remarks on the Frederick Douglass Trafficking Victims Prevention and Protection Reauthorization Act. 

ATEST welcomes the introduction of the FDTVPPRA, and we are 

particularly pleased with the bill’s emphasis on prevention. 

Nearly 2 decades after the enactment of the landmark Trafficking Victims Protection Act, we have made considerable 

progress, particularly in mobilizing political will to prosecute traffickers and protect victims of all forms of trafficking. 

Progress is lagging, as you noted, Mr. Chairman, on prevention, 

and we commend the reauthorization’s sponsors for taking up this 

challenge. 

I first started understanding the importance of prevention when 

I got my first anti-trafficking job. I just did not know I was combating human trafficking at the time. I worked for a faith-based organization serving runaway and homeless youth in New York City, 

LGBTQI youth fleeing abusive situations, young men and women 

24

of color caught in an unforgiving criminal justice system, and children exiting the foster care system, who, as Ranking Member Bass 

noted, are at heightened risk. 

All of them were marginalized. All of them were desperate to 

survive, and all of them were at risk of human trafficking. But I 

saw that if they had their basic needs covered, access to specialized 

services, and the promise of opportunity, the young people I met 

were resilient and unstoppable. And because they were receiving 

services, they were less at risk to human trafficking and other 

forms of exploitation. 

Later, I worked as an attorney representing immigrant women 

who survived being trafficked into the United States for labor and 

sexual exploitation. Each of my clients pointed to moments in their 

lives when, had there been services and resources available, the 

vulnerability they faced could have been alleviated. The message 

these women sent was straightforward: Their suffering could have 

been prevented. The reason for sharing the message was just as 

straightforward: They wanted to prevent someone else’s suffering. 

My clients taught me the importance of prevention, and they left 

me with an even more valuable lesson: Survivors are the experts. 

They know the most about this crime, how to prevent it, how to 

recover from it, and how to thrive as a survivor of it. 

I later joined an international women’s organization where we 

worked with local partners to implement anti-trafficking programs 

supported by the U.S. State Department. I met girls whose mothers 

had been trafficked into local brothels. These girls knew, even at 

the early age 9 or 10, that this would have been their future if not 

for the incredible programs that took them off the streets, provided 

them with a safe place, an education, a way out of abject poverty 

and vulnerability. 

I also met with law enforcement, prosecutors, and judges who 

work to prosecute trafficking cases. They unequivocally pointed to 

prevention as the greatest priority. They also stressed the simultaneous challenge of finding resources and mobilizing attention on 

proven ways to prevent exploitation, strategies that include providing children and families with access to education, livelihood, 

and social protection programs, strengthening rule of law, and ensuring survivors, vulnerable youth, and workers inform the development and implementation of anti-trafficking policy. 

ATEST believes the U.S. Government can and should strengthen 

its leadership to combat human trafficking around the world by 

resourcing efforts to prevent this crime and provide comprehensive 

services to those who are victimized. We are deeply concerned 

about the Trump administration’s proposed cuts to foreign assistance, which we believe could have significant impact on our antitrafficking efforts. 

We commend this committee for spurring multiple administrations to use the full range of foreign policy tools to combat this 

scourge and urge that you continue to do so as the administration 

transition continues. 

At Humanity United, we focus on bringing new solutions to global problems that have long been considered intractable. For us, preventing the risk of human trafficking is a critical element of our 

strategy. Whether it is working alongside companies to identify and 

25

address trafficking in their supply chains, advocating for the enforcement of the Tariff Act’s prohibition on the importation of 

slave-made goods, or learning from survivors’ critical expertise, we 

know that solutions to trafficking begin and end with preventing 

this crime from occurring in the first place. 

ATEST believes the reauthorization bill would bolster our efforts 

to prevent human trafficking from happening in the first place. 

This bill does that in ways such as enhancing the integrity of the 

U.S. State Department’s Trafficking in Person’s Report to ensure, 

as you noted, Mr. Chairman, that politics never, ever determines 

tier rankings; enabling schools to educate children about how to 

avoid all forms of human trafficking; ensuring that U.S. Government procurement does not fund human trafficking; bolstering protections for domestic workers employed by diplomats; and reauthorizing critical anti-trafficking programs across the government. 

ATEST looks forward to working with the bill’s sponsors and all 

Members of the House to move it forward with strong bipartisan 

support. We want to continue working with the committee to seek 

ways to strengthen the bill even further. A few of our proposed suggestions are contained in my written testimony. 

We also urge you to oppose deep and disproportionate cuts to the 

international affairs budget in both the Fiscal Year 2017 and Fiscal 

Year 2018 spending bills. If realized, the cuts would be devastating 

for anti-trafficking efforts worldwide. 

Thank you, Mr. Chairman and members of the committee, for all 

the work you have done to ensure the U.S. Government continues 

to be a leader in the fight to end trafficking worldwide. Thank you. 

[The prepared statement of Ms. Sperber follows:]

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25321d-1.eps

Testimony by Melysa Sperber 

Director of the Alliance to End Slavery & Trafficking 

Humanity United 

Before the Subcommittee on Africa, Global Health, 

Global Human Rights, and International Organizations 

House Committee on Foreign Affairs 

Of the United States House of Representatives 

May 2, 2017 

Winning the Fight Against Human Trafficking: The Frederick Douglass 

Trafficking Victims Prevention and Protection Reauthorization Act 

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25321d-2.eps

Mr. Chairman, Ranking Member Bass, and other distinguished members of the 

Subcommittee, thank you for holding this hearing on one of the most intractable 

human rights abuses of our times-the crime of human trafficking. And thank you 

for the opportunity to testify today. 

Mr. Chairman, I am the Director of the Alliance to End Slavery and Trafficking 

(A TEST). A TEST is a U.S.-based coalition that advocates for solutions to prevent and 

end all forms of human trafficking and modern slavery around the world. We 

advocate for lasting solutions to prevent labor and sex trafficking, hold perpetrators 

accountable, ensure justice for victims and empower survivors with tools for 

recovery. Our collective experience implementing programs at home and abroad 

provides our coalition an unparalleled breadth and depth of expertise. 

A TEST member organizations include: Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW), 

Coalition to Abolish Slavery and Trafficking (CAST), End Child Prostitution and 

Trafficking-USA (ECPAT-USA), Free the Slaves, Futures Without Violence, 

International justice Mission (IJM), National Domestic Workers Alliance (NDWA), 

National Network for Youth (NN4Y), Polaris, Safe Horizon, Solidarity Center, Verite, 

and Vital Voices Global Partnership. 

A TEST is supported by Humanity United and Humanity United Action, U.S.-based 

nonprofits dedicated to bringing new solutions to global problems that have long 

been considered intractable. To combat human trafficking. Humanity United and 

Humanity United Action each have their unique approaches, some of which include: 

Working in places where the problem is greatest, with a particular focus on 

South Asia, starting with N epa!; 

Engaging corporations to address modern-day slavery in supply chains; and 

Advancing U.S. leadership in the fight against modern slavery, including 

supporting A TEST. 

A TEST welcomes the introduction of the Frederick Douglass Trafficking Victims 

Prevention and Protection Reauthorization Act (FDTVPPRA), and we are 

particularly pleased with the bill's emphasis on prevention. Nearly two decades 

after the enactment of the landmark Trafficking Victims Protection Act, we have 

made considerable progress, particularly in mobilizing political will to prosecute 

traffickers and protect victims of all forms of trafficking. Progress is lagging, 

however, on prevention, the neglected "P" in our three "P" framework, and we 

commend its sponsors for taking up this challenge. 

The Imperative of Prevention 

I started understanding the importance of prevention when I began my first antitrafficking job- I just did not know it was an anti-trafficking job at the time. I 

worked for a faith-based organization serving runaway and homeless youth in New 

2 
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25321d-3.eps

York City-children exiting the foster care system, LGBTQI youth fleeing abusive 

situations, young men and women of color caught in an unforgiving criminal justice 

system. All of them were marginalized, all of them were desperate to survive, and all 

of them were at risk of human trafficking. It was disheartening to see that nearly one 

in five of 911 young people interviewed for two recent studies 1 by Covenant House 

revealed they were victims oftrafficking. 

But I saw that if they had their basic needs covered, access to specialized services 

and the promise of opportunity, the young people I met were unstoppable. They 

were resilient and remarkable. And because they were receiving services, they were 

less at risk to human trafficking and other forms of exploitation. That agency was 

preventing trafficking. 

Later, I worked as an attorney representing immigrant women who survived being 

trafficked into the U.S. for labor and sexual exploitation. All of my clients pointed to 

moments in their lives when-had there been services and resources available-the 

vulnerability they faced could have been alleviated. 

The message these women conveyed was straightforward: their suffering could 

have been prevented. Their reason for sharing the message was also 

straightforward: they wanted to prevent someone else's suffering. My clients 

certainly taught me the importance of prevention, but they also left me with a more 

valuable lesson: survivors are the experts. They know the most about this crimehow to prevent it, how to recover from it, how to thrive as a survivor of it. 

I later joined an international women's organization, where we worked with local 

partners to implement anti-trafficking programs supported by the Office to Monitor 

and Combat Trafficking In Persons at the U.S. State Department. I met girls whose 

mothers had been trafficked into local brothels. These girls knew even at the early 

age of 9 or 10 that this would have been their future if not for incredible programs 

that took them off the streets, provided a safe place, an education, and a way out of 

abject poverty and vulnerability. 

In nearly every region of the world, I also met with law enforcement, prosecutors, 

and judges who worked to prosecute trafficking cases. They unequivocally pointed 

to prevention as the greatest priority. They also stressed the simultaneous challenge 

of finding resources and mobilizing attention on the proven ways to prevent 

exploitation. These strategies include: 

Providing children and families with access to education, livelihood and 

social protection programs; 

Strengthening rule of law and reducing corruption; and 

1 Labor and Sex Trafficking Among Homeless Youth, Covenant House, (2017). 

http: II covenantho usestudy.org/? ga= 1.148 652 64.797313 3 70.149 34 715 07 

http: // cevlellll<fl'lllnkln&im't.Mil'li!irgt'b lgliM/il<lilil6$ Mflli.ilflilSiliili3f!\.flq111fJBrWiltNfJUraffi eking, A Ilia n ce to Hnd 

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25321d-4.eps

Ensuring survivors, vulnerable youth, and workers inform the development 

and implementation of anti-trafficking policy. 

At Humanity United, preventing the risk of human trafficking is a critical element of 

our strategy. Whether it is working alongside companies to identify and address 

trafficking in their supply chains, advocating for the enforcement of the Tariff Act's 

prohibition on the importation of slave-made goods, or learning from survivors' 

critical expertise, we know that solutions to trafficking begin and end with 

preventing this crime from occurring in the first place. 

Where and how are we winning the fight against human trafficking? 

The Scope of the Problem 

Trafficking in Persons (TIP) represents a grave affront to the U.S.' security, economy, 

and national values, degrading and reducing human beings to commodities that can 

be exploited for commercial sex acts or labor. While progress has been made in 

recent decades, the ILO estimates that human trafficking remains a $150 billion 

global criminal business with a conservative estimate of more than 21 million 

people ensnared in conditions of forced labor at any one time. Labor and sex 

trafficking generate hundreds of millions of dollars in illicit revenue for traffickers, 

who make 1,000 times more in profits than the USG invests to stop them. 

Trafficking victims are children, women, and men-U.S. citizens and foreign 

nationals-who are exploited for both sex and labor. Trafficking victims come from 

urban and rural communities. They are both undocumented and documented 

immigrant workers. They are not only victimized overseas but also throughout the 

United States. Traffickers exploit weak law enforcement regimes and abuse legal 

structures and institutions, and they target the most vulnerable in society. This 

often includes runaway and homeless youth; the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, 

intersex, and queer (LGBTIQ) community; Native Americans; Asian Americans and 

Pacific Islanders; migrant workers (including non-Spanish speaking migrants from 

Central America who have not benefited from Spanish-language outreach and 

engagement); youth of color; children; low literacy or numeracy individuals; and 

those with disabilities. 

TIP is a complex, multi-layered issue. First and foremost, it is a crime. Law 

enforcement plays a crucial role in combating TIP, fighting traffickers who operate 

locally and also those who operate transnationally. Holding traffickers accountable 

promotes the rule of law and engenders critical trust in our justice system. TIP is 

also an economic issue; forced labor degrades work conditions in the United States 

and around the world, artificially suppressing wages and fueling unfair competition 

on the basis of human exploitation. This happens when domestic or foreign 

competitors of law-abiding American businesses undercut labor costs by trafficking 

workers in other countries. 

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25321d-5.eps

The causes of human trafficking are rooted in interrelated and mutually reinforcing 

conditions of human vulnerability to exploitation associated with poverty, sexual 

abuse, lack of decent work, natural disasters, violent conflict, weak labor protections, 

unsafe migration dynamics, gender, religious and ethnic discrimination, and much 

more. Children, often because of their age, experience heightened vulnerability to 

this crime. 

TIP manifests itself in myriad ways in our society, from the isolated migrant worker 

trapped in forced labor in the tomato fields of Mexico, or on a trawler far from shore 

fishing for seafood to be exported to the United States, to the exploited child and her 

mother in a brothel that caters to sex tourists, to the runaway youth trapped 

through poverty and social isolation as part of an unpaid sales crew traveling across 

the American heartland. 

Labor trafficking is prevalent in industries with low-income workforces that are 

more vulnerable to exploitation, including agriculture, construction, manufacturing, 

hospitality, landscaping, building maintenance, and domestic work, among others. 

Although there have been cases, even in the United States, of professional workers 

like teachers and nurses being trafficked by labor recruiters through temporary 

work visa programs, low-income migrant workers are particularly vulnerable to 

labor trafficking. Sex trafficking also occurs in a wide variety of venues, including 

city streets, truck stops, strip clubs, hotels and motels, residential brothels, through 

escort services, and online classified services. The victimization is often complex, as 

some victims form trauma bonds with their traffickers who force or trap them in 

prostitution. Others are lured in with false promises of a job, such as modeling or 

dancing. And there are those who are forced to sell sex by their parents or other 

family members. 

Experts agree that both sex and labor trafficking are underreported. According to 

international estimates, of the approximately 20.9 million people in forced labor 

around the world, 18.7 million are exploited by private individuals or businesses 

while 2.2 million are exploited by states or rebel groups. Ofthose exploited in the 

private sector, 14.2 million are estimated to be victims of forced labor exploitation, 

and 4.5 million are estimated to be victims of forced sexual exploitation. 

Despite nearly two decades of progress, major challenges remain to end human 

trafficking including, among others, the following: 

Weak worker protections have increased workers' vulnerability to TIP and 

have eroded working conditions and wages for all workers, including the 

American working class. 

Concrete actions to eliminate human trafficking in supply chains remain 

weak, despite growing awareness by businesses of the risks of such abuse. 

Victims and survivors of trafficking too often cannot access the services and 

protections to which they are entitled and are not deeply enough involved in 

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fashioning solutions. 

Children are still being arrested for crimes rather than offered services as 

victims. 

Prosecutions for TIP offenses are low, especially in cases of forced labor and 

debt bondage, relative to the taxpayer investment in criminal law 

enforcement. 

USG agencies do not always effectively coordinate their efforts or invest their 

resources wisely, leaving gaps in programs and priorities. 

Limited resources are devoted to prevention and eradicating root causes. 

Political and special interests have damaged the standing ofthe TIP Report. 

Despite the growing awareness ofthe crime of human trafficking, prevalence 

data on the magnitude ofthe problem in the United States does not exist. 

Many of these views are represented in A TEST's Presidential Agenda for Abolishing 

Modern Slavery and Human Trafficking, which I ask to be made part of the record.2 

Bright Spots in the Fight Against Human Trafficking 

The challenges that remain are daunting but they must not eclipse the progress we 

have achieved in combatting human trafficking worldwide. There are bright spots 

that illuminate how to push the needle further. 

Importantly, as the anti-trafficking field has matured, we have implemented more 

refined methodologies to monitor and evaluate our impact on all forms of human 

trafficking. We must test our assumptions about and approaches to trafficking and 

vulnerability. In other words, to uncover bright spots, we need to devote substantial 

resources to learning and then share and apply the lessons learned as we move 

forward. 

Y Criminalization of Human Trafficking 

Great strides have been made to strengthen legal frameworks on human trafficking. 

Nearly all countries worldwide have criminalized most forms of human trafficking 

as set out in the United Nations Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish 

Trafficking in Persons Especially Women and Children, supplementing the 

United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime 

z A Presidential Agenda For Abolishing Modern Slavery and Human Trafficking, Alliance to Hnd 

Slavery und Trafficking (2017). https://endsluvervundtm(fickinq.urq/wp-cuntent/upluuds/2017 /01/ 

'J'ransitionReport 2017-01-19.pdf 

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Trafficking in Persons Protocol ("Palermo Protocol"P, which has been ratified by 

170 countries.4 According to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime 

(UNODC)'s 2016 Global Report on Trafficking in Persons, the number of countries 

that criminalized most forms of human trafficking increased from 33 in 2003 to 158 

in 2016 (out of 179 countries).s 

The UNODC's analysis shows that since the end of 2003, 124 of the 179 countries 

adopted legislation that criminalizes all aspects of trafficking in persons and 16 (or 

9 percent) of the 179 countries have legislation that criminalizes only certain 

aspects of trafficking in persons.6 Of the approximately 105 countries that did not 

consider trafficking in persons a crime in 2003, only five remain today? UNO DC 

projects that these gaps in legislation leave at least two billion people (of a total 

population of 7.5 billion) around the world without adequate legal protection. 8 

The widespread adoption of anti-trafficking legislation has not translated into high 

conviction rates. However, UNODC's findings show that there is a close correlation 

between the length of time a trafficking law has been enacted and the conviction 

rate. 9 This is evidence that the U.S. Government's critical investments in antitrafficking efforts that strengthen law enforcement's capacity are worthwhile and 

will achieve a high return on investment. 

'r Awareness of Human Trafficking 

The widespread ratification ofthe Palermo Protocol and subsequent 

implementation through national legislation criminalizing human trafficking has 

undoubtedly raised public awareness ofthe issue. Further, non-governmental 

organizations, like the Coalition of Immokalee Workers, sometimes in partnership 

with private sector actors, have engaged in campaigns to raise awareness about how 

to identify, respond to, and ultimately prevent trafficking in persons. The U.S. 

Department of Homeland Security Blue Campaign has successfully brought 

governmental, non-governmental and private sector partners together to air PSA 

3 Protocol to Prevent, Suppress und Punish Trafficking in Person Especially Women and 

Children, supplementing the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime, 

OHCHR (2000). 

http: //www.ohchr.org/EN /Professionallnterest/Pages/ProtocolTraffickinglnPersons.aspx 4 Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and 

Children, Supplementing the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime, United 

Nations Treaty Collections (2000). 

https: //treaties.un.org/pages /View Details.aspx?src-TREATY&m tdsg no-XVIII-12· 

a&chapter=18&clang= en 5 Global Report on Trafficking in Persons, UNODC (2016), 48. 

https://www.unodc.org/documents/data·and analysis/glotip/2016 Global Report on Trafficking 

in Persons.pdf 

6Jbid. 

7Jbid. 

s Ibid., 50. 

9 lbid.,l9. 

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campaigns, distribute posters and other materials in U.S. airports, and create and 

share tools for law enforcement, educators, judges, health care professionals, and 

others to help key professionals and the public recognize and report indicators of 

human trafficking.w 

In the U.S., the National Human Trafficking Hotline serves as a proxy indicator for 

improved public awareness of human trafficking. Polaris, which operates the 

National Hotline, reported that between December 7, 2007, and December 31, 2016, 

the Department of Health and Human Service's National Human Trafficking Hotline 

and Polaris' Be Free Text Line received 32,208 cases of potential human trafficking 

and 10,085 potential cases oflabor exploitation in the United States.l 1 Antitrafficking service providers similarly report increasing caseloads and waitlists, 

another indicator that we have awareness of this crime. This demonstrates that 

when we raise awareness, there will be an increased demand for services. The 

government must be responsive to ensure anti-trafficking organizations not only 

have the resources but also the training and capacity necessary to respond to 

survivors in need. 

Hotline data only tells us part of the story. For example, only 16 percent of the cases 

identified on the National Human Trafficking Hotline and the BeFree Text Line 

involved labor trafficking even though forced labor is more prevalent than sex 

trafficking. Polaris projects that labor trafficking cases in the U.S. are chronically 

underreported due to a lack of awareness about the issue and a lack of recognition 

ofthe significant vulnerability of workers in many U.S.labor sectors.l2 We must 

correct the imbalance so sex trafficking is no longer more recognized and visible 

than labor trafficking as a form of modern slavery in the U.S. 

J.-. Mobilization of Political Will to Combat Human Trafficking 

A TEST believes an important measure of the strength of anti-trafficking policies is 

the resources governments devote to implementing the legal framework aimed at 

preventing and ending human trafficking. By this measure, the U.S. government has 

achieved considerable progress: 

Between FY09 and FY15, funding for Department of Justice grants for 

Victims Services and Task Forces quadrupled, rising from $10 million in 

FY09 to $42.3 million in FY15. 

Between FY09 and FYlS, funding for the Human Trafficking Prosecution 

Unit rose by more than 50 percent (from $3.5 million in FY09 to $5.3 

million in FY15). 

1o DHS Blue Campaign Five Year Milestone, DHS (2015). 

https: //www.dhs.gov /hi og/2 01 S /07/2 2 I dhs-blue-campaign-five-year-milestone 

11 The Typology of Modern Slavery: Defining Sex and Labor Trafficking in the United States, 

Polaris Project (2 0 17). https: 1/polarisproject.org/sites I default/files/Polaris-Typology-of-ModernSlavery.pdf 

12Jbid. 

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Between FY09 and FY15, funding increased by a more than 60 percent for 

Department of Health and Human Services grants to victims (from $9.8 

million in FY09 to $15.8 million in FY15). 

Since its inception, the Department of State's Office to Monitor and 

Combat Trafficking in Persons has secured more than a 66 percent 

increase in funding. 

As a further measure of our progress, we have seen trafficking in persons emerge as 

a priority across the federal government. This is indicated by: 

The number of Appropriations bills that actively address the human 

trafficking problem has more than doubled. 

The number of Departments and independent Agencies that are actively 

working on anti-trafficking programs, as outlined in their annual 

appropriations, has nearly tripled. 

The number of bills in Congress that refer to human trafficking and have 

funding needs imposed on the Appropriations Committees has nearly 

tripled. In the 114th Congress, we had 114 bills. 

Despite these laudable gains, current levels of USG investment in fighting trafficking 

are orders of magnitude below the levels needed to make a significant difference, 

and there remains an imbalance favoring investments in prosecution over 

protection and, to an even greater extent, prevention. 

The USG has a moral duty and a core national interest in prioritizing prevention 

programs and in providing effective, trauma-informed, long-term, and 

comprehensive services to all victims of TIP in the United States. The sad truth is 

that investment in victim services and prevention programs at the federal, state, and 

local levels falls drastically short of the funding and level of policy priority needed to 

make good on this obligation. For example, greater investment is urgently needed to 

expand the reach of housing services and trauma-informed care available for 

trafficking victims and those vulnerable to trafficking. Too many victim service 

providers are unable to provide critical housing needs for the population they serve. 

Housing is one of the core primary services that victims require to meet their 

immediate needs and is currently one of the most difficult to address. 

What's Working in the Fight Against Human Trafficking 

~ TIP Report as Credible Tool 

Reports by governments and press can lead to positive change. In 2014, the TIP 

Report pointed to abuses in the seafood sector in Thailand. This helped spur 

business to action. And yet reports are only as useful as they are accurate and 

A TEST has been dismayed by the State Department's unwarranted tier ranking 

upgrades for certain countries. We believe the State Department has tarnished the 

credibility of the TIP Report in recent years by politicizing tier ran kings of key 

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countries, including Malaysia in the 2015 report13 and Thailand in 201614. By our 

assessment, neither country's government had demonstrated significant or effective 

e!Iort to combat human trafficking, particularly forced labor and sexual exploitation. 

When the State Department upgraded Thailand there was little evidence that the 

government effectively investigated the rampant trafficking along its border. Even 

Thailand's chief law enforcement officer responsible for investigating the mass 

graves fled the country in an act of desperation because he lacked confidence in his 

own government and feared the retribution of traffickers.l5 

The TIP Report should prioritize a country's enforcement of laws that prohibit all 

forms of trafficking in persons, rather than the enactment oflegislation or stated 

commitments that fail to substantively change the situation of trafficking victims on 

the ground. While legislation and public commitments are important procedural 

steps, it is implementation of those laws that protect vulnerable populations and 

hold perpetrators accountable for their crimes and makes the greatest difference in 

ending modern slavery globally. 

The TIP Report's influence rests on its integrity. That is why we applaud the 

provisions in the FDTVPPRA that address the TIP Report. We look forward to 

working with the Committee to improve these provisions by incorporating key 

elements of the TIP Report Integrity Restoration Act (TRIRA) of 2017 (S. 3 77), a 

complementary bill introduced earlier this year by Senators Menendez (D-NI) and 

Rubio (R-FL). The TRIRA takes an innovative approach by promoting the integration 

of anti-trafficking analysis into the work of multilateral development banks like the 

World Bank Group. A TEST urges the Committee to consider adding those TRIRA 

provisions that would encourage multilateral banks to include anti-trafficking risk 

assessments and analysis in project planning and that would mandate that 

multilateral banks oppose loans to countries that fail to meet minimum standards in 

the fight against trafficking. This is a smart approach to leveraging multilateral 

financial institutions' sizable investments to tackle the problem of human trafficking 

and poverty alleviation in tandem. 

Passing this reauthorization bill with the improvements we recommend would 

strengthen the usefulness of the TIP report as a diplomatic tool to combat modernslavery globally, and provide the Department of State with support to base report 

rankings on evidence on the ground-linked to concrete actions and impact-not 

political considerations. 

13 ATHST Hxpresses Strong Support for and integrity of State Department's 1"11' Report, Alliance 

to End Slavery and Trafficking (2015) https://endslaveryandtrafficking.org/atest·expresses·strong· 

support-integritv·state·departments-tip·report/ 14 A TEST Urges Secretary Kerry to Maintain the Integrity of the TIP Report, Alliance to End 

Slavery and Trafficking (2 016). https:/1 endslaveryandtrafficking.org/atest·urges·secretary-kerrymaintain·integritv-tip·report/ 

15 Ramzy, Austin. "Fleeing Thailand, Top Investigator of Human Trafficking Says He Fears for 

His Safety." The New York Times, December 10, 2015 

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~ Investments in Programs with Measurable Impact 

The Achilles heel of the anti-trafficking field is a striking lack of data. We can change 

that if we devote resources to rigorous monitoring and evaluation of our programs 

and policies. The U.S. wins when it invests in programs that achieve measurable 

impact. When we measure outcomes, we not only know our resources are positively 

impacting lives in the U.S. and overseas, we also know what works, how well it is 

working, and whether it can be replicated and scaled. 

As the FDTVPPRA recognizes, programs implemented by the Department of Labor 

(DOL) play a critical role in preventing and protecting children from the worst forms 

of child labor, including human trafficking, as well as in helping other federal 

agencies from preventing the importation of goods made with child and forced labor. 

The Bureau oflnternational Labor Affairs (ILAB) at DOL leads USG efforts to 

eliminate forced and child labor around the world by building the capacity of foreign 

governments and civil society to better address the social and economic causes of 

child labor and by providing direct services. Since 1995, ILAB has worked with 

partners in 94 countries to directly impact the lives of nearly 2 million children 

vulnerable to exploitative labor. !LAB is part of a global effort that has seen the 

number of children subjected to hazardous labor cut in half since 2000 (from 170 

million to 85 million) and seen the number of children engaged in child labor 

reduced by one-third (from 246 million to 168 million).16 

The critical programs that ILAB funds not only assure better conditions for foreign 

workers but also help give American workers an opportunity to effectively compete 

in global markets and help ensure that products made by forced labor or child labor 

are not sold to American consumers. In addition to supporting services for children 

and families, !LAB also produces the congressionally mandated Lists of Goods 

Produced by Child Labor or Forced Labor, which comprises 139 goods from 75 

countries. The List of Goods is an important foreign policy tool that the new 

Administration should leverage. 

The gains made in combating the worst forms of child labor support anti-trafficking 

efforts worldwide because the same vulnerabilities underlie both phenomena. 

Additionally, !LAB's technical assistance to address labor conditions in countries 

where the U.S. has trade agreements or preference programs also supports antitrafficking outcomes. ILAB has enabled organizations to build the capacity of the 

private sector to address child labor, forced labor, and worker rights issues, 

including companies working in tobacco, rubber, tea, cocoa, sugarcane, and cotton, 

all sectors where human trafficking is a significant risk. 

One of the most promising attributes of the newly authorized End Modern Slavery 

Initiative (EMSI) is that it aims to focus investments in programs with a measurable 

16 Bureau uf Internutiunul Affairs; InterAction (2017). https://www.interaction.org/chooseto-invest- 2 0 18/bure au-in ternati onal-labo r-affairs 

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impact in reducing the prevalence of human trafficking. The bipartisan initiative 

was introduced by Senators Bob Corker (R-TN) and Robert Menendez (0-NJ) and 

authorized within the FY17 National Defense Authorization Act. A TEST believes 

EMS! is a significant step forward in eradicating human trafficking because it will 

leverage the U.S. Government's investment, together with private sector and other 

donor government resources, to address all forms of human trafficking in the areas 

where it is most prevalent. 

i" U.S. Advisory Council on Human Trafficking 

We can only achieve sustainable social change if we work alongside those who have 

been or are on the front lines. We are set up to fail if we design and implement 

programs and policies to benefit survivors without their expertise and feedback. 

Survivors must be understood as key stakeholders for consultations and treated as 

leaders in the anti-trafficking movement with valuable insights and expertise. 

As a result of the Justice for Victims of Trafficking Act (JVTA), a bipartisan law, 

survivors have an increased voice in government policy through the United States 

Advisory Council on Human Trafficking (Advisory Council). Late last year, the 

Advisory Council issued its 2016 Annual Report that includes recommendations for 

the Senior Policy Operating Group and the President's Interagency Task Force to 

Monitor and Combat Human Trafficking (PITF). The Trump Administration should 

work together with the Advisory Council to consider the recommendations. 

A TEST urges Congress and the new Administration to clearly communicate the 

value of survivor engagement by providing support for adequate resources and an 

enhanced role for the Advisory Council and welcomes any initiative that provides 

such support. We encourage Congress to continue to engage survivors and workers, 

and to invest more in programs in which survivors and workers are central to 

monitoring exploitation and promoting enforcement oflegal protections against 

modern slavery. 

The Neglected "P": Prevention 

There are many good reasons why human trafficking is the issue du jour. Traffickers' 

profits are soaring, their evasive tactics are evolving, and the root causes of men, 

women and children's vulnerability to being trafficked remain largely unabated. But 

attention and progress are not necessarily correlated, and, despite the hype, we 

have left a critical element of anti-trafficking policy unfinished: prevention. 

The risk of disproportionately focusing on law enforcement tactics is that other, 

more promising opportunities to prevent trafficking before it starts will continue to 

be ignored. Of course, law enforcement is critical to ending trafficking. Without a 

doubt, we need informed and capable partners in law enforcement working across 

jurisdictions and borders to overcome the vicious cycle of human trafficking. But 

law enforcement is just one piece of the puzzle. While prosecution and harsh 

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penalties may be a deterrent, human trafficking survivors and others of us in the 

field know that ending this human rights scourge is achievable only if we can 

prevent would-be sex and labor traffickers from targeting vulnerable men, women, 

and children in the first place. 

Recommendations to Prevent AI/ Forms of Human Trafficking 

If Congress and the Administration are serious about tackling human trafficking, 

they must address the very real gap in U.S. anti-trafficking policy and practice that 

enables vulnerable men, women, and children to be lured into trafficking. 

Importantly, prevention is more than raising awareness about human trafficking; 

rather, effective prevention is the implementation of evidence-based approaches 

that address the root causes of modern slavery and alleviate the vulnerabilities that 

arise from them. 

Here are recommendations that would strengthen U.S. leadership on preventing 

human trafficking: 

1. Congress should appropriate robust foreign assistance to address the root 

causes of human trafficking. 

Efforts designed to prevent human trafficking must address the intersection of 

conditions, experiences, and social dynamics that contribute to vulnerability. Those 

who face discrimination and marginalization on the basis of gender, sexuality, race, 

ethnicity, nationality, religion, and disability carry greater risks of being successfully 

targeted by traffickers. An effective response to human trafficking must recognize 

the interplay of institutional and identity-based violence with human trafficking. To 

end human trafficking, our efforts must dismantle systemic discrimination on the 

basis of gender, sexuality, race, ethnicity, nationality, religion, and disability. 

Building anti-trafficking policies and activities into USG development and 

humanitarian assistance will enhance the impact of American taxpayer investment 

and also prevent TIP around the world. Integration allows the USG to address crime 

prevention and economic development simultaneously. This is partly owing to what 

we call the "freedom dividend" whereby communities that are freed from conditions 

of slavery are better able to participate economically and otherwise benefit from 

development assistance. This means that dollars invested in integrated countertrafficking and development programs lead to better development outcomes as well 

as counter-trafficking outcomes. 

To maximize the impact of USG investment in development and foreign assistance, 

Congress should: 

Direct USAID to implement anti-trafficking activities across assistance 

programs, with a particular focus on governance and democracy, economic 

development, public health, and humanitarian response in countries where 

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the prevalence of TIP is highest; 

Prevent humanitarian assistance from inadvertently contributing to 

vulnerabilities to trafficking, with particular vigilance applied to the 

transition from humanitarian relief to development assistance; and 

Require better monitoring and evaluation of the impact of USAID 

programming on TIP. 

We commend the bill's sponsors for including measures in the FDTVPPRA that 

improve transparency about USAJD's anti-trafficking expenditures. We look forward 

to working with the Committee to include additional language that would 

institutionalize the integration of counter-trafficking policy integration at USAID 

and ensure that foreign assistance efforts do not inadvertently leave vulnerable 

community members behind or even increase their vulnerability. 

A TEST believes the U.S. Government can and should strengthen its leadership to 

combat human trafficking around the world by resourcing efforts to prevent this 

crime and provide comprehensive services to those who are victimized. A TEST also 

believes strongly that ending human trafficking is tied directly to progress on public 

health, rule of law, universal education, environmental protection, decent work 

opportunities, and gender equity. We are deeply concerned about the Trump 

Administration's proposed cuts to foreign assistance, which we believe could have a 

significant impact on our anti-trafficking efforts. 

2. Secretary Tillerson should recommit to leveraging all foreign policy tools to 

advance an anti-trafficking agenda. 

A TEST believes the U.S. Government must leverage the full might and range of U.S. 

foreign policy, from diplomacy and trade policy to foreign assistance and 

multilateral engagement, to make a significant impact on human trafficking around 

the world. 

The Administration needs to ensure continued high-level support for U.S. diplomacy 

on trafficking issues. Making a difference in the most intractable cases and in the 

industries and sectors facing the greatest risk of trafficking will require high-level 

diplomatic intervention from Secretary Tillerson on down the chain of command. 

This Committee has an important role in this effort. Every subcommittee should 

ensure that human trafficking is raised when assistant secretaries from regional 

bureaus come to testify before them so that those responsible for the day-to-day 

relations in the Department are sensitized to the importance of this issue. 

U.S. trade policy and trade enforcement should similarly prioritize the prevention of 

human trafficking and related exploitative practices abroad and in the flow of 

commerce to the United States. To restrict the importation of products made with 

forced labor, the USG should make effective use of Section 307 of the Tariff Act, 

which empowers Customs and Border Protection (CBP) to stop shipments of goods 

produced with forced labor at our borders. CBP and Immigration and Customs 

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Enforcement (ICE) should self-initiate investigations into products potentially made 

with forced labor and to continue robust consultation with civil society, which often 

provides the evidence and leads for forced labor investigations. A TEST further 

recommends that the USG include strong labor rights provisions, including the 

protection of the fundamental rights of workers in new or renegotiated trade 

agreements, support capacity building programs in trading partner countries to 

address root causes of labor trafficking, and adoption of a position in the World 

Trade Organization (WTO) that the export of goods made with forced labor 

represents a trade barrier. 

We commend this Committee for spurring multiple Administrations to use the full 

range of foreign policy tools to combat this scourge and urge that you continue to do 

so as the Administration's transition continues. 

3. Vulnerable populations need greater access to services and protections. 

Populations vulnerable to TIP need more and better services. Vulnerable 

populations include runaway and homeless youth, the LGBTIQ community, Native 

Americans, Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders, Latinos, migrant workers 

(including non-Spanish speaking migrants who have not benefited from Spanishlanguage outreach and engagement), youth of color, children, low literacy or 

numeracy individuals, and those with disabilities. 

Traffickers adeptly exploit vulnerable populations by taking advantage of their 

weaknesses. For example, traffickers exploit runaway and homeless youth's lack of 

access to basic needs as well as the challenges that caused them to be homeless in 

the first place. Programs funded by the Runaway and Homeless Youth Act (RHYA) 

are embedded in local communities across the country and help preventtrafficking 

and other forms of exploitation. A TEST recommends Congress ensure prompt 

passage of the Runaway and Homeless Youth and Trafficking Prevention Act 

(RHYTPA), which would reauthorize RHYA. 

The ability to achieve gainful employment or to start a small business is vital for 

survivors. Because the lack of decent work is one of the key drivers of their 

vulnerability, employment, and training services represent a critical element to 

preventing re-victimization and represent the best way to empower survivors. The 

FDTVPPRA takes an important first step by establishing the Human Trafficking 

Victims Reintegration Through Employment Program (Employment Program) at the 

Department of Health and Human Services. If enacted, the Employment Program 

would offer victims of all forms of trafficking services such as vocational training, 

resume creation, job counseling, and other programs to support survivors' 

professional development. 

Though A TEST advocates that anti-trafficking efforts remain comprehensive, we 

recognize that some policy interventions may be tailored to a specific form of 

trafficking. On the prevention of labor trafficking specifically, one of the most 

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important things Congress and the new Administration can do is to enforce labor 

laws and core labor standards. Strong enforcement will have a critical impact on 

workers' vulnerability to human trafficking. A TEST commends the sponsors ofthe 

FDTVPPRA for including measures that strengthen protections for domestic 

workers accompanying foreign diplomats or employees of multinational 

organizations. Domestic workers' vulnerability is compounded by the immunity that 

shields their employers from liability so it is critical to strengthen labor protections 

for them. 

4. Regulate Unscrupulous Labor Contractors. 

Foreign labor contractors facilitate the movement of migrant workers across 

borders and are increasingly relied on to provide the migrant workforce needed in a 

range of industries. They may engage in direct recruitment or subcontract with 

other labor recruiters. All of these individuals profit handsomely from serving as 

middlemen, but the worst of them contribute to human trafficking. 

Unscrupulous recruiters often charge exorbitant fees, forcing workers into debt 

bondage (a form of human trafficking), falsifying documents, and deceiving workers 

about wages and working conditions. Recruiters (sometimes called foreign labor 

contractors) defraud U.S. immigration and labor processes by misclassifying 

workers on employment and visa applications or lying about the jobs that they plan 

to place workers in. In some cases, traffickers acting as labor recruiters have used 

U.S. temporary work visa programs to coerce workers into forced prostitution or 

other forms of sexual exploitation. Given the threat posed by unscrupulous labor 

contractors, for many years A TEST has called attention to the urgent needs of 

domestic workers and other internationally recruited workers who come to the U.S. 

under temporary work visas. 

Prosecutions against fraud in foreign labor contracting are difficult because most 

governments' capacity to enforce these laws is low. Often, workers and employers 

suffer the consequence of recruitment fraud while the only actor to escape penalty 

is the recruiter that had acted unlawfully in the first place. 

To prevent fraud in labor contracting, we urge the Committee to support enactment 

of federal legislation providing stricter regulations, information and protection for 

workers, and enforcement mechanisms. Further, we also support the passage of 

beneficial ownership legislation so that unscrupulous labor recruiters cannot evade 

law enforcement by hiding behind anonymous companies. 

5. Demonstrate U.S. Leadership in Reducing the Risk of Human Trafficking in 

Global Supply Chains. 

Consumers and investors are becoming increasingly aware that many ofthe goods 

and services Americans use every day are tainted with human trafficking at some 

point along vast and often opaque global supply chains. Companies and 

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governments alike have a moral, legal, and practical imperative to understand and 

address the risks of severe exploitation in their supply chains. 

As noted in an earlier recommendation, A TEST strongly encourages Congress to 

consider how to leverage trade policy and trade enforcement to prevent human 

trafficking and related exploitative practices abroad and in the flow of commerce to 

the United States. The enactment ofthe Trade Facilitation and Trade Enforcement 

Act effectively closed the "consumptive demand" loophole to the prohibition on the 

importation of goods made with forced labor contained in the Tariff Act of 1930. 

Building an effective approach to implementation of this newly robust prohibition 

could have a tremendous impact around the world. This loophole has for decades 

prevented the US government from implementing a long-standing policy to ban 

importation of goods made with forced, child, and/or prison labor. This milestone is 

a significant symbolic and practical step in the fight against forced labor in the 

supply chains of American companies and of the federal government. 

CBP and ICE will need a clear path forward to create and implement a process by 

which they could ramp up investigations; determine appropriate methodologies for 

linking shipments of imported goods to specific perpetrators of forced labor, forced 

child labor, and prison labor; and engage with and leverage existing and emerging 

supply chain tracing and compliance processes. This very promising policy tool will 

not live up to its potential unless ICE is provided a jolt of ideas, energy, partnerships, 

funding. and other resources to design an enforcement strategy and procedures that 

are equal to the challenge. The FDTVPPRA takes an important first step toward a 

clear path forward in calling for a study on the enforcement ofthe Tariff Act's ban 

on the importation of goods made with forced labor. 

Ultimately, human trafficking is an economic crime. People engage in it because they 

can make a great deal of money doing so. But as the Fair Food Program of the 

Coalition of Immokalee Workers has taught us, you can prevent forced labor from 

happening in the first place by rearranging the economics of the supply chain so that 

trafficking doesn't pay. The Fair Food Program has accomplished this by getting 14 

of the world's largest corporations to suspend produce purchases from any farm 

upon which forced labor has been found. This simple step has instantly aligned the 

interests of the farms with those of the workers in ensuring that forced labor does 

not occur, and the Fair Food Program has been so uniquely successful that the 

United Nations' Special Rapporteur in Trafficking in Persons recently concluded that 

it must be considered an "international benchmark" in fighting forced labor. 

The USG, of course, is the largest buyer of goods and services in the world, and it can 

accomplish similar results by adopting a true zero tolerance policy for forced labor, 

one that, like the Fair Food Program, does not recognize or brook exceptions. Indeed, 

the USG has the moral, legal, and practical responsibility to understand and address 

the risks of severe exploitation in its supply chains. The new Administration should 

implement federal procurement policies that deny contracts to companies that do 

not identify and address the risks of human trafficking in their supply chains. 

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Federal contractors providing goods and services must have strong systems in place 

that guarantee workplace rights and that demonstrate zero tolerance for forced 

labor and debt bondage. Compliance systems should include strong mechanisms for 

enforcement as well as a mechanism to receive and respond to worker complaints 

that result in timely actions. 

Finally, we know that access to banking is essential for human traffickers' business 

models as they rely on banks to launder money and generate profits. Finding ways 

to work with the financial industry to target these criminals is a critical tool in 

addressing human trafficking at home and abroad. A TEST welcomes the 

introduction of the End Banking for Human Traffickers Act (EBHTA) (S. 952 #, H.R. 

2219). Introduced by Senators Warren (0-MA) and Rubio (R-FL) and 

Representatives Royce (R-CA), Keating (0-MA), Love (R-UT), and Maloney (0-NY), 

the EBHTA would better equip the financial industry and financial regulators to 

combat human trafficking. 

6. Protect fundamental human rights of trafficking survivors, vulnerable 

populations, workers, and all victims of crime. 

Human trafficking is a grave human rights violation. It represents a fundamental 

threat to our values, our security, and our socio-economic wellbeing. A TEST has 

long advocated for the highest prioritization of concerted, strategic action to 

eradicate human trafficking. 

A TEST is deeply concerned that the new Administration's policies will undermine 

the progress we have achieved. A number of the Executive Orders issued by the 

Administration will have a detrimental effect on anti-trafficking efforts and, 

therefore, should be viewed as essentially counterproductive to any comprehensive 

attempt to tackle this horrific crime. Specifically, we believe the Executive Order on 

Enhancing Public Safety in the Interior of the United States (Executive Order on 

Public Safety), issued on january 25, 2017, and the Executive Order on Enforcing 

Federal Law with Respect to Transnational Criminal Organizations and Preventing 

International Trafficking (Executive Order on International Trafficking), issued on 

February 10,2017, fall short ofthe comprehensive and victim-centered approach 

needed to end modern forms of slavery. 

Under the Executive Order on Public Safety, anti-trafficking service providers risk 

penalties for serving undocumented immigrant victims of crime, including 

trafficking survivors. Not only is it contrary to our values to force service providers 

to risk punishment for serving crime victims, it will impede law enforcement's 

ability to work with trafficking survivors; as a result traffickers will act with 

impunity. In addition to serious constitutional concerns raised by the Executive 

Order on Public Safety's threat to withhold federal funding from local jurisdictions 

that have established local policies that limit their role in federal immigration 

enforcement, withholding federal funding from so-called sanctuary jurisdictions will 

devastate victim services agencies and mean that life-saving services are no longer 

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available to victims and survivors. If domestic violence programs, immigrant rights 

programs, and faith-based social service programs face funding cuts or restrictions 

are placed on immigrants' eligibility for programs, the impact on trafficking 

survivors will be devastating. There could simply be nowhere for immigrant 

trafficking victims to turn for basic necessities like food, shelter and access to 

medical services after fleeing from trafficking. 

A strong law enforcement response is a critical and necessary component of 

combating human trafficking; however, the framing of the Executive Order on 

International Trafficking represents a significant departure from the long-standing 

victim-centered approach that is enshrined in existing law. For nearly two decades, 

the U.S. has implemented a strategy centered on protection of victims, prevention of 

the conditions that allow trafficking to flourish, prosecution of perpetrators, and 

partnership with civil society and the private sector. By only focusing on human 

trafficking from a law enforcement perspective, the Executive Order on 

International Trafficking undermines this proven approach and jeopardizes U.S. 

leadership on combating this horrific crime. 

The U.S. has until now leveraged the full might and range of its resources and 

capacity to make a significant impact on human trafficking around the world and at 

home. The Executive Orders on Public Safety and International Trafficking are an 

egregious departure from the impactful approach the U.S. has adopted and 

promoted worldwide. The Administration's policies will undermine victims' 

confidence in those local, state and federal institutions whose core mission is to 

prevent crime and protect victims. Further, they will damage the whole of 

government approach that underlies the legal framework established by the original 

TVPA and its reauthorizations, including the FDTVPPRA. 

We urge this Committee to consider the implications ofthese measures to efforts to 

combat trafficking and bring justice to survivors. While we do not expect federal 

agencies to act in violation oftheir responsibilities, implementation of these 

Executive Orders needs to be fashioned in a manner that minimizes the risk of 

human trafficking. 

Conclusion 

We must not rest on the mistaken assumption that our work is complete. It is time 

for Congress and the Administration to get serious about anti-trafficking prevention 

legislation that can truly transform vulnerability into hope. The FDTVPPRA is an 

important step forward. A TEST believes the reauthorization bill would bolster our 

efforts to prevent human trafficking from happening in the first place. This bill does 

that in ways such as: 

Enhancing the integrity of the U.S. State Department's Trafficking In Persons 

Report; 

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Enabling schools to educate children about how to avoid all forms of 

trafficking; 

Ensuring that U.S. government procurement does not fund human trafficking; 

Bolstering protections for domestic workers employed by diplomats; and 

Reauthorizing critical anti-trafficking programs across the U.S. Government. 

A TEST looks forward to working with the bill's sponsors and all members of the 

House to seek ways to strengthen the bill even further and move it forward with 

strong bipartisan support. We also urge you to oppose deep and disproportionate 

cuts to the International Affairs Budget in both the FY17 and FY18 spending bills. If 

realized, the cuts would be devastating for anti-trafficking prevention efforts 

worldwide. 

Nearly two decades ago, this committee demonstrated historic and bipartisan 

leadership, leading efforts to pass the TVP A. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and members 

ofthe committee, for all the work you have done to ensure the U.S. Government 

continues to be a leader in the fight to end human trafficking worldwide. 

20 
46

Mr. SMITH. Ms. Sperber, thank you for your testimony and for 

your multiple recommendations made in that extensive submission 

that you have made to the subcommittee. Thank you so very much. 

I would like to now yhield to Ms. Saada Saar. 

STATEMENT OF MS. MALIKA SAADA SAAR, HUMAN RIGHTS 

LAWYER (CO-FOUNDER AND FORMER EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, HUMAN RIGHTS PROJECT FOR GIRLS) 

Ms. SAADA SAAR. Thank you, Chairman. Thank you, Ranking 

Member Congresswoman Bass. Thank you for the invitation to be 

here today. 

I am the cofounder and former executive director of the Human 

Rights Project for Girls, an organization that I founded to address 

gender-based violence. Although I am presently Google’s senior 

counsel on civil and human rights, I am pleased to appear before 

you today as a human rights lawyer, who for more than 15 years 

has witnessed how children trafficked on American soil have too 

often been left behind. 

Let me begin with a story of a girl, a trafficked girl who tried 

to run away. She could no longer endure the sexual torture and injury done to her still-child’s body. She could not tolerate being 

raped every day again and again by the men who purchased her. 

Because she could not take it anymore, she ran, but her trafficker 

caught her. And to make an example of her, to scare the other girls 

under his control, he set her on fire. 

This is not a story of child sex trafficking and enslavement that 

happened in some faraway country. It is our story. It is the story 

of a trafficked girl here in the U.S., in Compton. 

Girls are sold in this country with the same disregard for human 

dignity, and they are tortured and burned in the same ways when 

they try to escape. Across the United States, there are child sex 

markets not very different from those in Cambodia, in Thailand, 

and in India. Girls are abducted or lured by traffickers, and once 

in the commercial sex trade, they are routinely raped, beaten into 

submission, and sometimes even branded. They are branded like 

cattle. I have met girls whose faces were branded with the names 

of their traffickers. 

The human rights activist Ruchira Gupta says that the girl who 

is bought and sold anywhere in the global slave trade is always the 

last girl. She is the child who has been left behind by her family, 

by her community. She is the child who has been denied love, denied support, denied education, safety, and economic stability. In 

the U.S., the last girl is often the girl left behind by our foster care 

system. Most of the children bought and sold here for sex are child 

welfare involved, and the data is devastating. 

So in California, between 50 and 80 percent of sexually exploited 

children were involved in the child welfare system. The Administration on Children, Youth, and Families has cited several studies 

showing that 50 to 90 percent of victims of trafficking had been involved with child welfare services. In 2013, 60 percent of the sex 

trafficking victims recovered as part of the FBI’s nationwide range 

were children from foster care or group homes. 

There are so many girls I have met whose lives painfully demonstrate this child welfare to trafficking pipeline. For example, at 

47

a policy roundtable with 12 girls who had been exploited, I listened 

as each one of them began their story of being trafficked with the 

story of being in foster care. All of the girls experienced multiple 

foster care placements. Most of them were sexually abused while 

in care. Some of the girls disclosed that they were willing to endure 

the sexual abuse so that they would not be moved to yet another 

home. One girl said she stayed so that she and not her sister would 

suffer the abuse. 

Every one of the girls said that this chaos and violence groomed 

them to be trafficked. And it makes sense. It makes sense that a 

young girl moving through different homes, different congregate 

care settings, abused in those placements, is vulnerable to a trafficker who tells her that she is beautiful, that she is loved, that he 

will be her father, her boyfriend, her Prince Charming and take 

care of her. 

Withelma Ortiz Walker Pettigrew, the powerful advocate and 

survivor leader, said that her own experience of 14 different foster 

care placements was, in fact, her training ground for being trafficked. As she notes:

Like me, any youth in foster care becomes accustomed to 

adapting to multiple moves from home to home, which allows us to easily then adapt when traffickers, pimps, exploiters move us multiple times from hotel to hotel, city to 

city, and/or State to State. For myself, as unfortunate as 

it is to say, the most consistent relationship I ever had in 

care was with my pimp and his family.

It must be understood that the child welfare to trafficking pipeline is also a homeless pipeline. So we tell women to run from 

abuse, but when girls in care run from abuse, they often become 

homeless. They run to shelters or to bus stops or they loiter on the 

streets, and it is in those places of vulnerability that traffickers seduce or coerce them. According to the National Center for Missing 

and Exploited Children, 60 percent of runaways who are victims of 

sex trafficking were in foster care. 

Indeed, homeless children who have run from home or from foster care to protect themselves because they are LGBTQ youth or 

abused youth or both are all at risk. One in five homeless children 

report being a victim of trafficking. 

We cannot, we cannot continue to disregard the suffering of our 

kids. We cannot continue to allow our children to be so hurt and 

so invisible that a trafficker is their only hope. That is why the 

Frederick Douglass Trafficking Victims Prevention and Protection 

Act of 2017 is critical. Especially critical is the bill’s emphasis on 

grants for housing and trauma-informed services. 

Safe housing disrupts the pathways to child sex trafficking. Safe 

housing gives exploited children an alternative to the trafficker. 

And as the bill points out, safe housing for our exploited children 

must be specialized and must be trauma-informed. These girls who 

have been subject to repeated rape and abuse need trauma-informed care to heal from the injuries done to them, but it is not 

only that they have been subject to systematic rape; they have also 

been rendered property. They require the supports to heal from 

that kind of violence and enslavement. 

48

If we are to honor the great abolitionist Frederick Douglass, if we 

are to really hold ourselves accountable to the girls who are turned 

into sexual property, like the girl in Compton who tried to escape, 

then let us do the urgent work of creating new underground railroads out of this modern day form of slavery. Thank you. 

[The prepared statement of Ms. Saada Saar follows:]

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25321e-1.eps

COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN AFFAIRS 

Subcommittee on Africa, Global Health, Global Human Rights, and 

International Organizations 

Winning the Fight Against Human Trafficking: The Frederick Douglass 

Reauthorization Act 

Testimony of 

Malika Saada Saar 

Human Rights Lawyer 

Washington, DC 

May 2, 2017 
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25321e-2.eps

Thank you Chairman and Members of the Committee for the invitation to be 

here today. I am the co-founder and former Executive Director of the Human 

Rights Project for Girls, an organization that I founded to address gender-based 

violence. Although I presently am Google's Senior Counsel on Civil and Human 

Rights, I am pleased to appear before you today as a human rights lawyer who, 

for more than 15 years, has witnessed how children trafficked on American soil 

have too often been left behind. 

A few years ago, there was a trafficked girl who tried to run away. She could no 

longer endure the sexual torture and injury done to her still-child's body. She 

could not tolerate the experience of everyday, serial rape by the men who 

purchased her. Because she could not take it any more, she ran. But her 

trafficker caught her. And to make an example of her, to scare the other girls 

under his control, he set her on fire. 

This is not a story of child sex trafficking and enslavement that happened in 

some far away country. It is our story. It is the story of a trafficked girl here in 

the U.S. In Compton. 

Girls are sold in this country with the same disregard for human dignity, and 

they are often tortured in the same ways when they try to escape.' 

Across the United States, there are child sex markets not terribly dissimilar to 

those in Cambodia, Thailand and India. Girls are abducted or lured by traffickers 

and, once in the commercial sex trade, they are routinely raped, beaten into 

submission, and sometimes even branded. Yes, they are branded like cattle. I 

have met girls whose faces were branded with the names of their traffickers. 

The anti-trafficking activist Ruchira Gupta says that the girl who is bought and 

sold anywhere in the global slave trade is always the last girl. She is the child 

who has been left behind by her family and community. She is the child who has 
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25321e-3.eps

been denied love, support, education, safety, and economic stability. She is the 

orphan; the refugee; the discarded child of a war torn country. 

In the U.S. the last girl is often the girl left behind by our foster care system. 

Most of the children bought and sold here for sex, are child welfare involved.' 

The data is devastating: 

• In California between 50 and 80 percent of commercially sexually 

exploited children in 2012 had been involved with the child welfare 

system.' 

• The Administration on Children, Youth and Families, (ACYF), in a 2013 

document, included several studies showing that 50 to more than 90 

percent of children and youth victims of child sex trafficking had been 

involved with child welfare services.• 

• In 2013, 60 percent of the child sex trafficking victims recovered as part of 

a FBI nationwide raid from over 70 cities were children from foster care or 

group homes. 5 

There are so many girls I have met whose lives painfully demonstrated the child 

welfare to trafficking pipeline. At a policy roundtable with 12 girls who were 

2 "Finding and Stopping Child Sex Trafficking."' NPR, August 1, 2013. Available at 

http://".·V\\rw.npr.org/tcmplatcs/sto-:·yislory.php'?storylJ~207901614 (2013 Operation Cross Country cites that 

60% of victims recovered were from group homes or foster care system]; In 2012, Connecticut reported 97% of 

identified victims of child sex trafficking were child welfare involved. Connecticut Department of Children and 

Families, A Child Welfare Response to Domestic Minor Sex Trafficking (2012). Available at 

http: 1/v,n.Vl .. v.ct.govldcf/ll b/dd/humantrafficJng/pdf /response ::o domestic mmot sex tr::tfhckmg.pdf; In 2012, 

California's Succeed Through Achievement and Resilience (STAR) Court Program reported that 80% of the 

commercially sexually exploited children in their program were child-welfare involved. California Child Welfare 

Council, Ending the Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children: A Call for Multi System Collaboration in 

California. Available at 

http: I i'l!l;'l!""~·vouthuJ'iv.oq;;'lfiteadrGi n lncyl /yrm thlavv/pl~hliccttions/Endi:1g-CSEC-A-CaH- for- MultiSvstcm ColL~h 

5 Federal Bureau of Investigation, Violent Crimes Against Children: Innocence Lost, available at: 

http:J!WNw.fbl.gov/about-us/investigate/vc majorthefts/cac/jnnocence!ost 

2 
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25321e-4.eps

trafficked and exploited, I listened as each one of them began their story of 

being trafficked, with the story of being in foster care. All of the girls 

experienced multiple placements in foster care and group homes. Most of them 

were sexually abused while in care. Some of the girls disclosed that they were 

willing to endure the sexual abuse so that they would not be removed to 

another home, and therefore removed from their siblings. Every one of the girls 

recognized that it was the experience of multiple placements in foster care and 

group homes that groomed them to be bought and sold for sex. 

It makes sense that a young girl moving through several different homes and 

congregate care settings, abused in those placements, is vulnerable to a 

trafficker who tells her that she is beautiful, that she is loved, that he will be her 

father/boyfriend/prince charming and take care of her. 

Withelma Ortiz Walker Pettigrew, the powerful advocate and survivor leader, 

said that her own experience of 14 different foster care placements was in fact 

her training ground for being trafficked. As she notes: "Like me, any youth in 

foster care, becomes accustomed to adapting to multiple moves from home to 

home which allows us to easily then adapt to when traffickers/pimps/exploiters 

move us multiple times, from hotel to hotel, city to city, and/or state to state. 

For myself, as unfortunate as it is to say, the most consistent relationship I ever 

had in care was with my pimp and his family." 6 

It must be understood that the child welfare pipeline is also a homeless to 

trafficking pipeline. We tell women to run from abuse, but when girls in care run 

from abuse, they often become homeless. They run to shelters or bus stops or 

loiter on the streets. And it is in those places of vulnerability that traffickers 

seduce, coerce or kidnap the girls. According to the National Center for Missing 

6 Withelma "T" Ortiz Walker Pettigrew, Hearing on Protecting Vulnerable Children: Preventing Sex Trafficking of 

Youth in Foster Care, United States House of Representatives Committee on Ways and Means Subcommittee on 

Human Resources October 23,2013: 

h1.WJ::Ji~gyg}lli1mcans.hous~J_yfl.LR.l.oad~~LFilesfl~-Q£llLWalker Petllgrew Testim.gn.y_11R102J.ll.p_Qf 

3 
53


25321e-5.eps

and Exploited Children, 60 percent of runaways who are victims of sex trafficking 

had been in the custody of social services or in foster care. 7 

Indeed, homeless children who have run from home or from foster care, to 

protect themselves because they are LGBTQ youth, or abused youth--or both--

are all at risk. 1 in 5 homeless children report being victims of child sex 

trafficking according to a recent study on the intersection between child 

homelessness and trafficking.' 

We cannot continue to disregard the suffering of our children. We cannot 

continue to allow our children to be so hurt and so invisible, that a trafficker is 

their only hope. That is why the Frederick Douglass Trafficking Victims 

Prevention and Protection Act of 2017 is critical. 

Especially critical is Section 114's emphasis on grants for housing and 

trauma-informed services. Safe housing disrupts the pathways to child sex 

trafficking. Safe housing gives exploited children an alternative to the trafficker. 

And, as the bill points out, this kind of safe housing for our exploited children 

and youth must be specialized and trauma-informed. The girls who have been 

subject to repeated rape and abuse need trauma informed care to heal from the 

injuries done to them. They have not only been subject to systematic rape, but 

they have also been rendered property. They require the supports to heal from 

that kind of violence and enslavement. 

If we are to honor the great abolitionist Frederick Douglass, if we are to hold 

ourselves responsible to the girls who are turned into sexual property, like the 

girl in Compton who tried to escape, then let us do the urgent work of creating 

new underground railroads out of this modern day form of slavery. 

7 John Ryan, CEO National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC), Hearing on Protecting 

Vulnerable Children: Preventing Sex Trafficking of Youth in Foster Care, United States House of Representatives 

Committee on Ways and Means Subcommittee on Human Resources October 23,2013: 

4 
54

Mr. SMITH. Thank you very much for your leadership and for 

your testimony. 

Let me begin, if I could, with some questions. First, Ms. Becker, 

if I could start on child soldiering with you. As you know, our legislation does really try to beef up and strengthen, as you have pointed out in your testimony, by providing effective and continuing 

steps when there is a waiver so that we don’t see an abuse of the 

waiver; the idea that government-supported police and the security 

forces would be added to the military; and then the accountability 

in terms of reporting to Congress, the committees of Congress, in 

a very prompt and robust way. 

Greg Simpkins and I were in South Sudan last August. We met 

with Salva Kiir, five of his generals, his Minister of Defense, and 

his Vice President, and really pressed hard on a zero tolerance policy on sexual abuse, the targeting of vulnerable, mostly women and 

children, as well as aid workers and child soldiering as a huge 

problem in South Sudan. About 16,000 is the current estimate. It 

could be higher or lower, but it is a major, major league problem. 

He promised to help on the zero tolerance policy. We are still waiting with bated breath for that to be truly implemented, although 

I think it will. There are some signs, but it is still not there. 

So if you could speak to the language in the bill because, again, 

when waivers are provided, you have underscored the good, the 

bad, and the ugly with your comments on the DRC, Rwanda, and 

Chad. And I think the fact that DR Congo went down to near zero 

on recruitment is a major success story. And then, you know, further down in your testimony, of course, you talk about how in 60 

percent of all cases, according to the Stimson Center, waivers were 

used, accounting for 95 percent of the aid affected by the law, 

which is the ugly. If you can elaborate on how you think this legislation might help. 

And then I would like to go, if I could, to Melysa Sperber about 

progress is lagging in the area of prevention. You point out that 

prevention is more than awareness raising. I agree with that. Systemic causes always need to be addressed if you want to get rid of 

the underlying problem. But we have not done enough even on the 

awareness raising. So if you could elaborate on that, both parts of 

it. 

Of course, Mr. Benz, you on the awareness raising as well, because I do believe that knowledge is power. The more these young 

people at the earlier age know what awaits them if they are runaways or get involved with one of these pimps or traffickers, that 

they are inviting hell on Earth into their lives and that of their 

friends if they go that path. And of course, drugs are so often a 

part of it. 

So there needs to be a major effort, I would think, starting with 

the President, the Governors, certainly Congress, and amending 

the Elementary and Secondary Education Act is a major step in 

that direction. Maybe there is more that we need to be doing. But 

if you could speak to this issue of prevention. 

I still think we lag on prosecution as well as on the area of protection of the victims, the three Ps of trafficking, but it seems to 

me that if you could stop it in the first place, just like if you look 

at health, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, the 

55

more we stop cancer before it starts or in its early stages, the more 

likely the trauma will not follow. 

If I could, Ms. Saada Saar, if you could tell us about your successful efforts to shut down craigslist, an adult services page, what 

lessons have we learned to help stop children being trafficked online. There is a very serious effort being undertaken by Ann Wagner to look at the CDA to amend it, to change it so that liability 

is not sloughed off as it has been so that Backpage can operate almost with impunity, almost like a slaver block where women are 

put online and sold like commodities and young girls and young 

boys, so if you could speak to that. And then I do have many, many 

other questions. 

And I also thought, Ms. Sperber, your point about the Achilles 

heel of anti-trafficking efforts is the lack of evidence. When we did 

the first Trafficking Victims Protection Act, we had language in it 

which we got right from the U.S. Department of State that said 

50,000 people are trafficked into the United States every year. It 

was in our findings. It was wrong. It turned out to be a very bad 

survey. But I can’t tell you how many people, including the Washington Post, used that and some other imprecise calculations to 

mock our efforts on human trafficking, and they mocked it. Front 

page above the fold, left-hand side—I will never forget the article—

rather than covering the silent epidemic against women and children called human trafficking, because so much of it is hidden, 

they looked at a statistic that probably was false and had a great 

deal of sport in mocking it. 

And I think the more we get it accurate, the more likely we get 

more buy-in from people, including the media, which often ignores 

this issue majorly. Look over there. We invited every single solitary 

press person we could think of, maybe if you are watching online, 

to be here to hear what you had to say, all five of you, and I look 

over and there is nobody at the press table. If we were talking 

about some more trivial matter that had a greater appeal to the 

media, they would be lined up. And this happens all the time. 

Yeah. Or if we didn’t have a unity here on the legislation Ms. Bass 

and I have introduced and several others, including the chairman 

of this committee, they would be covering it. Maybe we should start 

something. 

But it is very disappointing because that lack of visibility in the 

media then diminishes the impact of everything we do. 

And finally, if I could, Mr. Gehring, just if you could, for the 

record, reiterate again just all of you if you would like to, how important it is to get the TIP Report right. It was a problem during 

the Bush administration. I think it became epidemic in those last 

2 years of the Obama administration. And it is not like we said this 

in a vacuum. I invited the Ambassador-at-Large to testify. 

We had previous Ambassadors-at-Large testify about how 

politicization of the TIP Report was causing others—Thailand, 

when you would meet with the TIP leaders in Thailand they would 

say, why should we listen to you, although they were listening. 

When we look over at Malaysia and they get a bye because of the 

TPP. 

China which arguably is the worst trafficker on Earth in terms 

of the numbers. One reason being sex-selection abortion which has 

56

led to at least 61 million missing girls, because of that systematic 

evisceration of the girl child while still in utero. It is a magnet for 

trafficking like few other countries on Earth. 

India has a problem with that as well, but nothing like China. 

What they do vis-a-vis North Korea is an outrage. Women make 

their way into China and they are trafficked. We have had five 

hearings in this subcommittee about the trafficking of women from 

North Korea. They told their stories. They think they are relatively 

free now that they are on the other side of the border to be met 

by a broker who then sells her. 

So it is a violation of the Refugee Convention on the part of 

China and yet they are not Tier 3. That is absurd. No matter what 

we are working, in my opinion, with China on, trying to mitigate 

the crisis in North Korea or any other issue du jour with China it 

should not in any effect what the TIP Report says about the truth. 

And whether or not sanctions follow is a call by the administration. 

And I think when you use sanctions you increase the effectiveness of everything vis-a-vis TIP and the office. When you don’t, 

people take note of that and say, hmm, sanctions are there, but 

they don’t utilize them. 

So if you could speak to the importance again, and this would be 

to the administration now, we thought we had a meeting a couple 

of us with Secretary Tillerson, that was going to be my lead that 

in South Sudan, comments that I would make, get the TIP Report 

right. Listen to those experts at TIP. They eat, sleep, and breathe 

the human rights issue. And don’t let the Assistant Secretaries and 

the bureaus shape it. Get it right and then move on from there. So 

those questions, if you could, and then I will yield to Ms. Bass. 

Ms. BECKER. Mr. Chairman, thank very much for your question. 

I am happy to address in greater detail how the Frederick Douglass Reauthorizaiton Act will strengthen the Child Soldiers Prevention Act and address some of the problems that we have seen over 

the last few years in implementation. 

I think one of the most important aspects, as you mentioned, is 

the issue of waivers. Under the Obama administration we saw 

waivers being used in the majority of cases, and oftentimes used 

for countries that have made little or no effort to address their 

child soldier problem. 

You mentioned the situation in South Sudan, which is one that 

we are very concerned about. South Sudan was actually making 

some progress in ending the use of child soldiers until 2013 when 

the current conflict erupted. Since that time that progress has completely unraveled, and we have seen child recruitment skyrocket. 

And yet, the Obama administration gave South Sudan waivers 

under the Child Soldiers Prevention Act for every year for 5 years. 

Another example is Yemen. Before the Houthis overthrew the 

government in 2014, the administration had given Yemen full 

waivers for every single year, despite virtually no effort by Yemen 

to address their child soldiers problem. So the Frederick Douglass 

Reauthorization Act, one of the most significant things that it does 

in this respect is require that if the President issues a national security waiver, that he certify to the appropriate congressional committees that the affected government is taking effective and continuing steps to address their problems of child soldiers. 

57

So this will be very important. It preserves some flexibility in the 

law. So the President still has the authority to issue waivers if he 

believes that it is in the national interest, but it creates much 

greater pressure on these governments to actually take concrete 

steps to end their recruitment and use of children. So that is the 

first thing that I wanted to address. 

The second thing, you also mentioned in your early remarks 

changing the definition of which forces would be covered by the act. 

Afghanistan has been a problem for the last few years. I mentioned 

that child recruitment in Afghanistan doubled between 2014 and 

2015. 

One of the parties that was recruiting children is the Afghan 

Local Police. This is an entity under the Ministry of Interior, completely government-controlled that has been recruiting and using 

children in active combat and in operations against the Taliban. 

And yet, because of the word ‘‘police’’ in their name, and their status under the Ministry of Interior, the State Department has refused to consider Afghanistan as coming under the umbrella of the 

Child Soldiers Prevention Act. 

So the new amended definition that the Frederick Douglass Reauthorization Act provides will ensure that these loopholes don’t 

allow some governments to escape scrutiny in the future. It will ensure that Afghanistan comes under the umbrella of the bill, which 

will be very important. 

A third important provision of the Frederick Douglass Reauthorization Act is to specify a timeframe of 45 days after the State Department issues its list of what governments are involved in the 

use of child soldiers, the Secretary of State will have 45 days to notify those governments that they are subject to the Child Soldiers 

Prevention Act and possible withholding of military assistance. And 

that notification period is really important and an important improvement. 

And then finally, the original Child Soldiers Prevention Act only 

required annual reporting on implementation for the first 5 years 

of implementation. We have passed that date. And yet, we need to 

know how the law is being implemented. And very significantly the 

Frederick Douglass Reauthorization Act will not only continue to 

require annual reports, but it will also require much more transparency over what amount of aid has been allowed to go to countries using child soldiers under the use of waivers and how much 

has been withheld. 

And that is going to be of great use to both Congress and the 

public to be able to tell whether this law is being used for its intended purpose or not. 

So these are four very important improvements that are being 

put forward in the new act. Thank you. 

Ms. SPERBER. Thank you, Mr. Chairman for those important 

questions. We at ATEST agree that we are lagging in all three Ps. 

And so we certainly encourage the U.S. Government to continue 

their emphasis on prosecution, protection, and prevention. And yet 

we are so pleased to see the committee and the bill’s sponsors put 

an emphasis on prevention which we see as being really the greatest gap in our work on human trafficking in the United States and 

overseas. 

58

We also agree we could do more to raise awareness and that we 

should be doing more. We would point to a huge critical opportunity to focus on the risks of trafficking within global supply 

chains of both labor and sex trafficking. We would look to programs 

like The Coalition for Immokalee Workers’ Fair Food Program as 

an excellent model in the United States, and also increasingly recognized worldwide as one that would reduce risk for trafficking and 

put workers and survivors squarely at the center of enforcing those 

mechanisms. 

We also believe public-private partnerships are instrumental in 

raising awareness, and would look to efforts like the Blue Campaign, which has had real positive impact in raising awareness 

around the United States. 

Most important for us, though, we want to see that where awareness is raised, there are complementary efforts to invest in services, to ensure that those survivors who come out of the shadows 

to demand services because of this awareness are met with a specialized response to their very significant needs. 

And so we see increasingly that where there are awareness efforts made there are demands for services, and that is a consequence of the success of those efforts. But we also see that service providers have increasing wait lists and that they don’t have 

the training and capacity they need to meet that demand. And so 

we would hope to see that balance achieved as we move forward. 

On prevention, we absolutely agree with you that it is so necessary to address the root causes of trafficking, which are so complex and rest on so many different interrelated forms of exploitation, whether it is discrimination, gender, gender-based violence, 

or the criminal justice system’s impact on youth, particularly those 

of color, those who are coming out of systems like foster care and 

child welfare that are putting them at greater risk rather than 

strengthening them and reducing their vulnerabilities. 

And so we hope to see more attention and investment paid in 

those root causes. There are two areas that we see as promising. 

The first is the integration of trafficking within other programs. 

Things like what is happening at USAID, where they have implemented counter trafficking in persons policy that is applied across 

the agency. We are very pleased to see the provisions in the reauthorization to increase transparency around those expenditures at 

USAID so we have a greater understanding of the impact that they 

are achieving, where there are gaps, and what we can do to better 

address those gaps. 

We also want to ensure that within the humanitarian context 

nothing is done to inadvertently heighten the risks of trafficking. 

We saw some risk of that after the earthquake in Haiti. And it was 

so wonderful that there was a supplementary appropriation made 

that enabled the State Department to focus specifically on trafficking. We would hope to see that happen after disasters, whether 

manmade or environmental, in the future, because we do know 

that vulnerability goes up in those crisis situations. 

And then finally, I would note the importance of listening to the 

U.S. Advisory Council on trafficking. The survivors who have been 

appointed to that council are incredible experts and they point to 

prevention and the need to address root causes. And so I think that 

59

if we have all of the expertise and the evidence in place to tell us 

that this is really the direction we can and should be going in. 

And then on your point on data, Mr. Chairman, it is so difficult 

to get ahold of the scope of this crime because it is underground 

and because it is in the shadows. And we have suffered, as you 

noted, from numbers that have misinformed the direction that our 

policy should go in. 

We see two promising ways or bright spots that we can look to. 

The first as you noted, is the International Labor Affairs Bureau 

at the Department of Labor. We see it as really a gold standard 

in terms of their approach to monitoring and evaluation. And we 

believe we can really look to the efforts that they have made that 

have touched nearly 2 million children worldwide in reducing their 

vulnerability. We hope to see a lot of practices they have put in 

place to measure the investments that they have made in combating the worst forms of child labor replicated in other agencies 

and on other programs. 

And then finally, we are looking forward to the work that the 

End Modern Slavery Initiative will achieve. We were very supportive of the bill that came out of the Senate Foreign Relations 

Committee last year and grateful for the leadership of that committee and then of Congress in authorizing EMSI and the National 

Defense Authorization Act. And we believe that EMSI’s focus on 

measuring impact and looking especially at the regions and industry where trafficking has the highest prevalence will yield real lessons for us on where we can go next and how we can better inform 

the direction of our investments, make them more effective, learn 

what we can do to scale and replicate what is working, and learn 

from what is not working. 

And so, I do think we have some ways that we can hopefully 

overcome this Achilles heel that has been plaguing this field and 

that hopefully in future iterations of this hearing and of TVPRA reauthorizations we will be able to bring forward really credible data 

that will not only inform policymakers like yourself, but also the 

public and the media so that they can report on what we believe 

is one of the most consequential human rights violations of our 

generation. Thank you. 

Ms. SAADA SAAR. Thank you, Mr. Chairman——

Mr. BENZ. Mr. Chairman, first of all, I have say I love your passion on this subject. I am very passionate about this subject also. 

And of course it would come as no surprise as someone who 

founded an organization in his name. I am very excited that you 

have decided to name the Trafficking Victims Protection Act after 

Frederick Douglass. 

But I really believe the addition of the word prevention can 

change the paradigm of how we approach this issue of human trafficking, not only in the United States, but all over the world. 

We have been thinking about this for a long time. I stay up 

nights thinking about this and how we can create a systematic approach to prevention so that we have children that are living free 

of this problem. We have addressed it in four ways with a program 

that we launched in California last year called PROTECT. I will 

just go over real quickly what those four components are. 

60

First of all, we start with a protocol that community members 

agree upon, law enforcement, service agencies, NGOs, schools. This 

allows everyone to get on the same page. In my experience in addressing this issue across the United States, communities have not 

necessarily been on the same page when we are approaching this 

issue. 

We have relied in a lot of ways on law enforcement and service 

agencies to take the lead and do the work on this issue, where 

faith-based organizations and schools and parents have been asking the question how can I help? What can I do? I want to make 

a difference in this field. This is a way of starting. 

The next component is training, training teachers, and training 

professionals in the community on this subject because those that 

are supervisors of young people are first responders. And if we are 

able to identify this early enough, we can reduce the amount of 

harm that is done and help someone get out of this sooner. 

The next piece is education. And we start education in grade 5. 

Again, this is a general approach to knowing who is allowed in 

your own boundaries. We go to 7, 9 and 11. We want young people 

not only to understand the nature of human trafficking, but we 

also want them to understand the historical connection to slavery. 

This matters in a lot of ways, not only so they can see the connections between historical slavery and human trafficking, but also 

so they can see that this problem of slavery has plagued human 

kind for thousands of years and there is not necessarily a solution 

available that is going to make it disappear overnight. And so we 

can convince young people that this a long-term approach and how 

do we approach it in the long-term. 

The last piece is research. We have a University partner in our 

California project, Sacramento State University and they are helping us create new data. One day we will be able to do it, create 

correlations between how much education and training we do 

equals X amount fewer of people that are trafficked in our community. 

We don’t know that number because we don’t know how many 

people are trafficked in our community today. So we are starting 

with gathering data that allows us to understand that young people understand material, teachers understand material, and we can 

find out how we have reduced the vulnerability of children to this 

issue, to this problem and, to this threat in our communities. 

So that is the way we envision how the addition of prevention 

and a new focus on prevention can change the paradigm of what 

we are doing on this issue. 

Ms. SAADA SAAR. Mr. Chairman, you and I have a very deep 

abiding belief in human rights. And as a human rights lawyer 

what I have learned, what I have been taught, is that the abuse 

is maintained and continued if there is impunity. And right now 

we deal with the situation of impunity in the way that our children 

in this country are purchased for sex. 

In most situations when children are purchased for sex, the 

buyer is not even arrested. And when the buyer is arrested, it is 

usually on solicitation misdemeanor, not on any form of child sexual abuse. We continue to contemplate this issue within the context 

of vice and prostitution. Even though it is happening to these kids 

61

has nothing to do with vice or prostitution. This is a form of child 

sexual abuse. And yet, the perpetrators are not treated in that 

way. 

We have created a legal distinction and a cultural distinction between raping a child and paying to rape a child. And in the latter 

instance, there is full impunity for that crime. I have come to believe very deeply that if we want to stem the epidemic of child sex 

trafficking in this country we must begin to understand this and 

enforce this as statutory rape. We cannot continue a situation 

where when buyers purchase our children they are set free or simply receive a slap on the hand. 

If we begin to prosecute buyers for statutory rape, for sexual assault of a minor, if we put them on the sex offender registry. If we 

recognize that what they do in any other context is recognized as 

child rape. If we create these new norms of understanding that this 

is not about child prostitution, that this is child rape and the perpetrators have to be treated accordingly, that is when we will see 

a shift. 

And until then, I don’t think that anything will have the same 

impact. This is about a culture of impunity that allows these 

human rights abuses against our children to continue. 

Mr. SMITH. Thank you so much for that. 

And all of your points were extremely well taken. When we were 

working on the definition, and the Palermo Protocol couldn’t be 

clearer, that anyone who has not attained the age of 18, which is 

our definition as well, by definition if just one commercial sex act 

that person is a trafficking victim. Unfortunately, many of our local 

jurisdictions don’t recognize that. And since most of the prosecution 

is at the local level, you are right, the solicitation charge as opposed to the child rape charge is what sticks. And I think that culture has to change and has to change immediately. 

The law on the Federal level I think gets it right. We can always 

do more, but we need to be admonishing the States to comport to 

that definition as quickly as possible. Many have in their State 

statute like New Jersey’s, but we need to do more. Thank you for 

that admonishment. 

Ms. Bass. 

Ms. BASS. Well, let me thank all of the panelists for some outstanding contributions to this issue. 

I wanted to begin with Mr. Gehring. You have said that you have 

seen a difference in how the report and the ranking and the tier 

level actually makes a difference. And I was wondering if you could 

expand on that some more. And along with that, I wanted to 

know—you also mentioned that the ranking, the tier ranking was 

political in some instances. And with that in mind I wanted to 

know what your opinion of the U.S. ranking is? 

Mr. GEHRING. Thank you for the question, Ms. Bass. I do want 

to be very clear about one thing, I think that for the most part the 

Trafficking in Persons Office and the TIP Report gets it right. 

Ms. BASS. Right. That was clear. 

Mr. GEHRING. I think that they do a tremendous job on the majority of the rankings, and especially the narratives. And the dedicated staff at that office represent the very best of American ideals 

and values. 

62

I would also say that the 2015, 2016 report, those were quite controversial on especially a few countries. 

So I would also caution against this upcoming report being vindictive against those past years, right? Because that perpetuates 

the politicization of the report. So we don’t way to say, well, we 

didn’t those guys on Tier 3 last year or, 2 years ago, but we are 

going to get them this year. I don’t think that is helpful. 

And the tension that exists between the regional bureaus and the 

Trafficking in Persons office is a natural one, right? The regional 

bureaus are dealing with broad——

Ms. BASS. My question was you said that you have seen where 

the report makes an actual difference. And I was wanting to know 

if you would give me some examples of where you saw it makes an 

actual difference. 

Mr. GEHRING. Yes, we have an office in the Philippines that for 

12 years focused on commercial sexual exploitation of children. And 

7 years ago the Philippines was ranked on the Tier 2 Watch List. 

And based on our experience, based on the case work that we 

worked in partnership with the Philippines National Police, children were openly exploited. 

But that government has made tremendous progress on addressing commercial sexual exploitation. 

Ms. BASS. What does he do, kill everybody? 

Mr. GEHRING. Not withstanding many of the other human rights 

abuses that still exist in the country. So I think that is an important distinction to highlight is that we don’t have to wait until a 

country solves all of its poverty or all of its human rights abuses 

before it can start protecting children. And we have seen the Philippines do a tremendous job on that specific crime. 

Last year in the 2016 report, they received their first Tier 1 

ranking which we believed is an appropriate ranking based on the 

progress——

Ms. BASS. But did you think they made that progress because of 

their ranking in the report? 

Mr. GEHRING. Indeed. In 2010 when they were at risk of losing 

a significant amount of foreign aid, this is anecdotal evidence, from 

our case work in our offices there, we had the Philippines Government coming to our offices there asking what can we do to improve 

our tier ranking? What actionable steps do we need to take? And 

I think that is where the TIP Report can be extremely useful. That 

is what you want the TIP Report to do. It is a tool that is used 

to spur government to action. It is not the end result in itself to 

get a country onto a Tier 2 Watch List or on Tier 3. You want that 

to be a prod for them to make concrete and credible evidence on 

how they are protecting citizens. 

Ms. BASS. And our ranking, the U.S.? 

Mr. GEHRING. I appreciate the question, but I would actually 

probably defer to my other panelists who work on domestic issues. 

IJM’s expertise is on international issues, but I think there are 

many others on the panel who can speak to the U.S. Government’s 

ranking. 

Ms. BASS. Ms. Becker, you were talking about child soldiers. And 

you mentioned two countries that Obama waived, you mentioned 

63

South Sudan and Yemen. What exactly is the waiver? What does 

the waiver say? Do you know? 

Ms. BECKER. Sure. Thank you Ranking Member Bass. 

So the waiver provision allows the President to invoke national 

security interests to basically bypass the prohibition that is in the 

Child Soldiers Prevention Act. 

So with no waiver it means that certain categories of military assistance are automatically withheld from a government that has 

been listed by the State Department of being involved in the use 

of child soldiers. But if there is a waiver from the President, it 

means that that assistance, whether it is foreign military financing 

or military training, or direct commercial sales is allowed to continue, even if the country has taken no action to address child soldiers. 

Ms. BASS. So in your experience with child soldiers, short of kidnap or force, what drives them, what drives the children to become 

child soldiers? 

Ms. BECKER. That is an excellent question. What we have seen 

in our research at Human Rights Watch is that there is a whole 

continuum of ways that children end up in governmental, armed 

forces, paramilitaries, or rebel groups. So at one extreme you have 

children who are literally abducted from their homes, abducted 

from their schools, threatened with death if they don’t join. 

In other cases, we see children who are coerced, or threatened, 

or, for example when I did research on Burma, I found that there 

were boys that were told that if they didn’t have an identity card, 

they would have to go to jail. But if they didn’t want to go to jail 

they could join the army instead. And that actually wasn’t true, but 

it was a form of coercion to make these boys choose the army. 

In some cases, children, especially if they have seen atrocities 

against their family or against their community, may be motivated 

to join armed groups or armed forces out of revenge. They want to 

protect their community. They want revenge for abuses against 

their loved ones. 

Then you also have children who are lured in by promises. Promises of salary, promises of education, lured by status, wanting to be 

seen in the uniform or carrying weapons, maybe they see others in 

their community who have joined. But oftentimes these children 

have no idea of what the reality of military service is or the kind 

of danger they will find themselves in. 

Ms. BASS. Human Rights Watch looks at conditions in the U.S., 

correct? 

Ms. BECKER. That is right, we do. 

Ms. BASS. Do you look at gangs in the U.S. and why children 

here join gangs? 

Ms. BECKER. Human Rights Watch has not looked at youth and 

children joining gangs in the United States, but there has been excellent research by other organizations that draws the parallels between children who join gangs and children who join armed forces. 

In Brazil for example, children who join the gangs in Brazilian 

favelas, their profile is very similar to what you see for children 

joining armed groups in conflict countries. And in fact, their mortality rate is higher than in many conflict countries. 

64

Ms. BASS. Well, it is interesting how we view child soldiers in 

other countries than the level of empathy and concern, but what 

draws kids to join, the ones that aren’t forced we—what happens 

in our country we don’t seem to have—we don’t look in that same 

way at all. 

Where I know that one of the things that draws kids to join 

gangs in communities is their safety. It is a job, it is employment, 

surrogate family, kids that fall between the cracks. But our view 

here is to incarcerate them as opposed to address the root cause 

reasons for them joining a gang. 

Ms. Saada Saar, you talked about trauma informed care. I was 

wondering if you could describe what trauma informed care means? 

Ms. SAADA SAAR. It is a term that does get tossed around very 

loosely. I think what the elements that I consider to be critical to 

trauma informed care is that we are not talking about getting a 

bunch of girls to do yoga classes and that counts as trauma informed care, or to make jewelry. 

Trauma informed care is about involving a comprehensive systematic approach to healing and well-being. And so when we think 

about a comprehensive approach, it is not a 30-day program. It is 

a program that stretches out from 6 months to a year that is both 

intensive and has aftercare, that is inclusive of professionals, as 

well as those who are peer counselors. That type of comprehensiveness, that type of recognition that the process of healing is not 

short term but long term. The recognition that healing can only 

happen when there is the stabilization of the individual. 

Trauma informed understands especially in this context that it 

is not only about healing from the sexual violence, but again from 

the condition of being made into property. 

Trauma informed care for our children I think also has to have 

a very keen eye toward the need for educational resiliency. That we 

are talking about girls who instead of going to school have been 

bought and sold. Boys who instead of being in school have been 

made into the sexual property of another. It is critical that as part 

of a healing process that is comprehensive and trauma informed, 

that they be able to reclaim themselves as learners, that they be 

part of an educational process that allows them to be whole and to 

thrive. 

Ms. BASS. So I am going to ask you in a minute what you think 

of our ranking on the tier system. But I want you also to talk about 

the child welfare system, because one of the problems I have with 

us here is the definition of child abuse and child neglect, it has to 

be a caregiver, a parent. And if you are a pimp you don’t fall into 

that system, therefore the girls or the boys do not receive the same 

type of protection. 

And over the last few years we have tried to change that. I don’t 

know if the work we have done here has actually worked, has actually been implemented, meaning in cities and States. If we view 

the children who are trafficked—we send them to jail, we arrest 

them and view them as prostitutes. And in some places like Los 

Angeles for example we are not doing that anymore, supposedly. 

So my question is about how we view by definition who these 

children are. Are they now being considered as part of the child 

welfare system or are they still falling through the cracks? 

65

Ms. SAADA SAAR. I think there is a real need to do an audit 

around that. I don’t think we know. And I think it is absolutely 

critical that we be able to understand whether or not the law that 

was changed to recognize that, it is not only abuse by the caregiver 

or legal guardian but that the trafficker has to be contemplated as 

having some form of custody over the child and that the child has 

to be recognized as being under the purview and protection of child 

welfare services. We have to get at that. 

I know that when we look at certain States that made that 

change, for example in Florida, we did see a real implementation 

of how to ensure that children who were being trafficked were in 

fact contemplated as child welfare kids. 

I think the other piece that is important to surface when we talk 

about child welfare is that not only must child welfare take responsibility for our kids who are being bought and sold, but it is also 

important to look at this issue of multiple placements. 

Ms. BASS. Right. 

Ms. SAADA SAAR. Because it really is the multiple placements 

that especially our girls endure that render them so absolutely vulnerable. What is happening that a girl can be subject to anywhere 

from 10 to 14 placements? 

Ms. BASS. I have met girls that were placed 66 times. 

Ms. SAADA SAAR. It is unacceptable. And so I think part of how 

we talk about reforms to child welfare we have to center it around 

ensuring that our children who are bought and sold are in fact protected under child welfare. But we also have to get to this issue of 

multiple placements. 

And then I think the other piece that is really important here 

that speaks to criminalization is that if we see the kids under the 

protection of child welfare, that child welfare ought to have influence and guidance in what happens to the girl as opposed to the 

juvenile justice system. Right? 

That if we really do recognize that the girl is being abused, that 

that is in the purview for child welfare as opposed to juvenile justice. And what we have seen happen way too often is that our children who are being bought and sold are being displaced into the 

juvenile justice system as opposed to child welfare or the public 

health system generally. 

Ms. BASS. I think what is so powerful about this to me is the statistics you said from 50 to the 90 percent, if you are in the child 

welfare system, the government is your parent and the government 

is responsible for you. So if you get trafficked and you are under 

the care of the government, that is a whole other ball game than 

a random child that is kidnapped or a random child on the street. 

And the government doesn’t have any responsibility for that, 

which is why I raise where is our ranking on the tier report. Considering we rank ourselves, we rank ourselves best, which I think 

that is really a major contradiction that we need to look at ourselves a lot more. 

I wanted to ask you about the type of services girls from the foster care system might need that might be different from a woman 

or a child that was from another country and was trafficked for 

their labor. Can you lump it all together and can you provide services to the person from another country who was labor trafficked 

66

and a girl in foster care, is it all the same in terms of service provision? 

Ms. SAADA SAAR. It is not all the same. And I think we make 

a real mistake in conflating all of those conditions. I will say to you 

that what is very clear to me is that our girls—and it is mostly 

girls—who are at the intersection of child welfare and child trafficking are also involved in juvenile justice. And so when we talk 

about child sex trafficking in this country, it includes those systems 

that have been very dangerous for our kids. That is not true with 

labor trafficking, right? There isn’t necessarily the involvement in 

criminalization or the experience of being in child welfare made 

vulnerable because of multiple placements and then sold. 

It is important to acknowledge, and it is not at the exclusion of 

understanding—this is not an Olympics of suffering, it is simply to 

say that there are distinct experiences and particular interactions 

with certain child-serving systems that are failing our kids that are 

part of the experience of child sex trafficking that we have to be 

able to distinctly address if we want our kids to heal. 

The experience alone of a girl who has been put into 60 placements or more, then bought and sold and then arrested on charges 

of child prostitution is a particular experience of suffering, it is an 

indictment on our child-serving systems that we must be able to 

address in a very distinct and comprehensive way. 

Ms. BASS. So here we are in DC, and there has been a number 

of reports lately about missing girls. In California, there is a Web 

site from the child welfare system where you can see the missing 

children. 

What is the situation in DC, if you are familiar with it? There 

are a number of girls, they don’t know where they are. 

Ms. SAADA SAAR. Look, you know, there is a deep belief that I 

have that because of the age of those girls, because of the vulnerability of those girls, that they are the girls who are being bought 

and sold in this city. I have met too many girls here and throughout the country who have run away from home because of abuse 

at home or in the foster care system. They are considered runaways, but there is not enough effort to look at what has happened 

to them to understand that those runaways are the girls who are 

being bought and sold. 

And it saddens me that the majority of those girls, whether here 

or other parts of our country are Black and Brown girls. And that 

too often there are ways that when Black and Brown girls are subject to violence, to sexual violence especially, they are not construed 

as victims. They are construed and criminals, as child prostitutes. 

And so I really hope that we can instead of casting off the missing girls in DC as just runaways who don’t want to be home anymore, we can understand that those girls stories are so representative of what we see everywhere. That those girls are the vulnerable 

girls who are being trafficked and who are not bad girls, who are 

not simply to be dismissed as runaway girls, who are girls in places 

of extreme sexual violence. And they have to be acknowledged for 

the kind of vulnerability and suffering that they are in right now. 

Ms. BASS. And frankly, if a girl runs away, that doesn’t mean 

that she wants to be trafficked. You can run away and wind up in 

circumstances that you didn’t plan on being in. 

67

In Los Angeles we had a situation, these were not girls, they 

were women, who had been missing. And the community organized 

and begged the police department to search for the women, and 

after a while began to believe that was a serial killer. No one believe the community for about 10 or 15 years. They just convicted 

the guy who continued to kill for 10 to 15 years more and found 

out that in fact there was a serial killer. I think it was over 30 

women that were killed. 

So I will just conclude by asking you about what our ranking is 

on the tier system. 

Ms. SAADA SAAR. Well, I hope that we can reexamine that ranking in light of the criminalization that happens to our kids who are 

being trafficked. It makes no sense to me that in this country we 

are in a situation, especially against the legal backdrop of the 

TVPA that recognizes a minor who is involved in commercial sexual exploitation is per se a victim of trafficking. 

I don’t understand how it can be allowed that in any State or locality, especially those drawing down on TVPA funding, that there 

is any situation of one child being arrested on child prostitution 

charges. The idea that in this country we are criminalizing our 

children who are being subject to commercial rape is unacceptable, 

is a human rights violation. 

And I think the other area of my concern as it relates to our 

ranking is not only the criminalization of our children who are 

being exploited, but also as we talked about the full impunity for 

those who are raping our kids. Any situation again where we have 

individuals who in another context would be considered to be committing statutory rape, but in this context of purchasing a child 

and raping that child, and given full impunity, we have to interrogate the norms around that. 

We have to ask why have we allowed a culture of impunity 

around what happens to these kids? And how are we not holding 

ourselves more accountable to that and ending that if we are Tier 

1? 

Mr. SMITH. I would like to yield to Ann Wagner. And thank her 

for taking the time to come out. 

She is the sponsor of a new bill, the Allow States and Victims 

to Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act of 2017. Last year she was the 

author of the SAVE Act, which became a law. And I would point 

out that Karen Bass was the author of the Strengthening Child 

Welfare Response to Trafficking Act, which also became law. 

So Ms. Wagner, please proceed. 

Mrs. WAGNER. I thank you, Mr. Chairman. And I thank the 

ranking member too who has been a tremendous leader on this 

issue and so many things that we have all worked collectively to 

champion. 

I am grateful for this hearing and to have the opportunity to 

visit with the witnesses and just thank you all for working so tirelessly to complete the Frederick Douglass Trafficking Victims Prevention and Protection Act. 

The lifelong work to combat human trafficking is an inspiration 

to me personally. And I am grateful for the opportunity to be an 

original cosponsor of this legislation. It is fitting, I think, that the 

bill is actually named after Frederick Douglass, a great pioneer of 

68

liberty and humanity. A true leader who, to this day, continues, I 

believe, to teach us about the meaning of justice. 

It is my particular honor to offer an amendment that will ensure 

that countries on the TIP Report’s Tier 2 Watch List take concrete 

actions to combat human trafficking. I had the great privilege of 

serving as a United States Ambassador in Western Europe from 

2005 to 2009. And as a former U.S. Ambassador, I worked a great 

deal on numerous TIP Reports. 

And so, I will be offering this amendment at markup. It will also 

require the State Department to justify a country’s ranking, linking 

its actual actions to the minimum standards enumerated in section 

108. 

Together, we will strengthen the TIP program and hold countries 

accountable for enabling human trafficking. I believe that the passing TVPA, which has been with us so proudly since the year 2000, 

and this is year 2017, is going to help prevent vulnerable members 

of our society from being victimized in the first place and helps 

more survivors successfully reintegrate into normal life. 

I thank you again, Mr. Chairman, for your leadership and for advancing what I believe is our global mission both international and 

domestic to eradicate modern slavery. 

Ms. Sperber, as you know, I have introduced the Trafficking Survivors Relief Act, which will give trafficking victims a pathway to 

petition the courts to have their criminal records cleared for offenses that were a direct result of being trafficked. 

How important are vacater laws to helping get survivors back on 

their feet? 

Ms. SPERBER. Thank you so much for the important question, 

Mrs. Wagner, and for your services as an Ambassador in Western 

Europe, and your leadership on human trafficking. 

I think the importance of vacature laws is immeasurable. As 

Malika so articulately described, there is a need for comprehensive 

trauma informed services. And I think a part of the spectrum of 

services that we need to offer to survivors includes legal services 

for not only vacating convictions, but for defending survivors if 

there are criminal charges pending, if there are civil needs for restitution, or immigration services. 

But importantly, in order for those legal services to have a path 

forward, the Trafficking Survivors Relief Act needs to be enacted. 

Because right now, survivors are really impeded from healing if 

they aren’t able to obtain employment, and if they still carry with 

them the charges and the convictions that are a direct result, as 

you said, of their victimization by traffickers. 

And so, we really hope to see that law enacted because it will be 

transformative for survivors. We know that there are survivors 

who, as one survivor has told me, has a conviction that is like a 

life sentence because she can no longer get gainful employment. 

She has been afforded opportunities that are then taken away from 

her because of these convictions, which were as a result of her having been trafficked across multiple State lines as a child. 

And so, we need to enable them to overcome those convictions. 

And I think the Frederick Douglass Reauthorization is a really 

amazing complement to the Survivors Relief Act because it also affords Health and Human Services the opportunity to provide addiVerDate 0ct 09 2002 17:17 Jun 06, 2017 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00072 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6633 F:\WORK\_AGH\050217\25321 SHIRL
69

tional support for survivors who are seeking professional development, whether it is on resume creation or vocational skills, a whole 

range of services that will be a really important complement to the 

Survivors Relief Act. 

Mrs. WAGNER. I thank you, Ms. Sperber. And I agree wholeheartedly. Having met with so many survivors that are suffering, 

whether it has to do with employment, housing, going back to 

school, vocational training, credit, things of this nature, the relief 

act will apply to noncriminal offenses and give the court the opportunity to vacate those offenses that really pertain specifically to 

them being victims of trafficking. 

Things like the Mann Act. It could be money laundering. It could 

be there are new prostitution. There could be numerous charges of 

a noncriminal offense that most of these women or sometimes children carried over, still carry on their record and have been prohibitive for them as they try to turn that page as a survivor and start 

a new life. 

I am very hopeful that we will be—not just introducing but seeing this bill for the first time on the House in late May. We are 

excited about the opportunities there to move this and advance it 

forward. 

Mr. Gehring, I salute IJM’s phenomenal work. And I am wondering whether there are specific places around the world where 

you see political will mounting to address sex trafficking and forced 

labor. What are the primary obstacles facing countries also on the 

Tier 2 Watch List in seriously combatting trafficking? 

Mr. GEHRING. Thank you, Congresswoman Wagner, and thank 

you for the kind words about IJM. 

Your question on where we see political will building in countries. I mentioned the enormous progress that the Philippines has 

made. I would echo that to Cambodia as well and their ability to 

address commercial sexual exploitation of children. And this is not 

to say that the issues are solved in these countries right? 

Cambodia still needs to maintain the gains that they have made 

and also address cross border labor trafficking. The Philippines 

faces a rising criminal industry of online sexual exploitations. 

These are two examples where we see our partners in the government have made significant steps on addressing a certain type of 

trafficking. 

I think that political will is to be applauded. And I think it is 

important that the TIP Report, as a tool, not only just name and 

shame countries, but also recognizes the progress and the gains 

that have been made. Lest countries get weary of always being 

pointed out and not given credit for the progress that they have 

made. 

Mrs. WAGNER. What are some of the other obstacles, and I open 

it to any of you that you think faced these countries on the Tier 

2 Watch List from moving forward and combatting trafficking? 

Anyone else have a comment on that? 

I will move on. And, Mr. Benz, we both know that education and 

awareness are critical to ending human trafficking in America. 

How can the U.S. better support education and training programs 

that promote prevention and detection? 

70

Mr. BENZ. Well, I think that funding is a big part of this. There 

has not been, as far as I know, since the TVPA of 2000, any significant funding for prevention education. There has been training for 

professionals. There hasn’t been significant training for educators. 

So I think funding is a big part of it, and I think that understanding the value of bringing education into public schools will be 

helpful, and I think the naming of this bill is a big part of that, 

beginning to reframe how we address this issue, not just from a 

law enforcement point of view and a survivor service point of view, 

but from a preventative standpoint as well. 

Mrs. WAGNER. I thank you. And I am going to close, Mr. Chairman, on a story about one of my many efforts toward education 

and awareness when it comes to what I call modern day sex slavery. 

I am not one who believes that we can legislate away society’s 

ills, that education and awareness are absolutely critical, in all 

areas, whether I am dealing with hotels and convention bureaus, 

whether I am dealing with different transportation outlets. I just 

did a great event with Truckers Against Trafficking, and NATSO. 

I am a big believer in dealing with those that on the frontlines, our 

hospitals, our nurses, our emergency rooms. So many I think across 

our country that need to have the kind of education and awareness, 

and I believe it extends to our educators, too. 

I had the great privilege, Mr. Chairman, a year or so ago, of pulling together every single public school in my district, Missouri’s 

2nd Congressional District. I first started with the superintendents 

and then set up a program of training. The Department of Education came out, along with others in the industry, did two sessions. They were attended by about 50 each of frontline high school 

and junior high personnel. 

These were school nurses and counselors and teachers and others 

that came from the educational sphere. There were private schools 

and every one with I think the exception of one of our public 

schools was there in this day of training, two different sessions, 

where we talked to the educators about the signs to look for in 

terms of who may fall victim and prey to human trafficking. We 

talked about the services that were available. We talked about then 

ratcheting it up to programs where we are not just doing programs 

and assemblies on bullying and safe space and things of that nature, heroin, cocaine, things that are very important, opoid abuse, 

but also on sex trafficking, so that children can be safe and that 

they are all aware of what is out there. 

In every single one of our communities, in every single one of our 

cul-de-sacs, the scourge of sex trafficking lives, and it is absolutely 

untenable in the United States of America that this happens every 

single day to our children, to our women, to our girls, to our boys. 

So I am a big believer in education and awareness. I will continue to put forward good commonsense legislation and hold our 

agencies like the Department of Justice, Mr. Chairman, and others, 

accountable for the laws that are signed by our President. I have 

legislation signed by President Obama, and I hope to have future 

legislation signed by President Trump. 

But education and awareness are very key. And I think it is incumbent upon leaders like myself and my colleagues to use the 

71

tools that are out there and bringing people together to keep our 

children safe. 

Yes, Mr. Gehring. 

Mr. GEHRING. Just in relation to your question about a Tier 2 

Watch List, and forgive the delay, and also in relation to the 

amendment that you plan on offering specifically around concrete 

actions, I think that is extraordinarily important. And I think what 

is especially helpful too is to define what concrete actions are, what 

credible evidence is, and I think that within that you will get to 

a diagnosis of what you are hoping to get is what do the Tier 2 

Watch List countries struggle with? 

And, indeed, it is probably what countries on the Tier 2 Watch 

List, Tier 3, and indeed, also in Tier 1, that would say some indicators for that are, are there active investigations being conducted? 

Are there arrests? Are there convictions? Are trainings being provided? Are services to survivors being provided? Those are very 

tangible things that I think should guide the tier rankings of each 

country, and I think that those actions within that list are what 

Tier 2 Watch List and many other countries struggle to do well. 

Mrs. WAGNER. You are absolutely right. I thank you very much, 

Mr. Gehring. 

And I thank you again, Mr. Chairman, for your leadership. 

I thank the ranking member for letting me follow her in her 

questioning, and without further adieu, I better head back over to 

my Financial Services Committee, so I thank you all so very much 

for what you do. 

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. 

Mr. SMITH. Thank you very much, Mrs. Wagner, for your leadership and for taking the time to be here. 

Mr. Gehring, I think you made an excellent point about the Philippines when asked what country has the TIP Report and the 

threat of sanctions, as well as all the positives, technical support 

that is provided on how to craft good policy working with our Embassy and with the TIP office. 

Piero Tozzi and I after the typhoon hit in 2013, November 2013, 

Haiyan, went over there. I led a congressional delegation. Our military did an extraordinarily good job. The Abraham Lincoln was 

there, the military. The Marines were there providing food, clothing, shelter. 

But everywhere we went, we went with two cabinet officers. I obviously, as did Piero, brought up trafficking in persons. I was 

amazed the impact that the U.S. Government has had by being 

faithful in defending, and working on behalf of, potential victims, 

particularly children, how clued-in the leadership was of the Philippines. 

So the TIP office, for the record, and the TIP Report I think has 

a very laudatory, you know it was Natan Sharansky who said you 

can’t fight a human rights abuse if you don’t first chronicle it and 

do it with great, great accuracy. So that is why the accuracy issue 

is so important, as you pointed out. 

I would note for the record that in the early years of the TIP Report, which as you all know has prescribed minimum standards 

which we have updated and made stronger and better over the 

years, both Israel and South Korea were on Tier 3, subject to sancVerDate 0ct 09 2002 17:17 Jun 06, 2017 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00075 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6633 F:\WORK\_AGH\050217\25321 SHIRL
72

tions where they could lose security aid and other kinds of assistance, two of our closest allies in the world, the Bush administration 

put them on Tier 3. 

And I met with the Ambassador to Israel frequently and the 

South Korean Ambassador who wanted to get off tout de suite, as 

quickly as they could get off it. And they took very, very significant 

actions. 

The South Koreans passed a number of laws that looked just like 

ours, and perhaps even better in some cases; and the brothels in 

Tel Aviv and elsewhere in Israel were shut down, and the women 

who had been exploited were liberated. 

It shows that it works, so another couple of examples. But it has 

to be, that is why our appeal to the new administration is, as we 

did to the previous administration which fell on some deaf ears, get 

it right. Just tell the truth. Speak truth to power. And all five of 

you have done so very, very effectively today to this subcommittee 

and by extension to the Congress and American people. 

So I want to thank you so very, very much, and again getting 

back to your original testimony, Mr. Benz, when you said knowledge makes a man unfit and, of course, we would add a woman as 

well, unfit to be a slave, and that it is easier to build strong children than to repair a broken man or women. Thank you for your 

testimony and your leadership. 

And tomorrow in this committee here, we will mark up the bill. 

It has been referred to several other committees. We will be working with the chairman and the subcommittee chairman and, of 

course, Kevin McCarthy who has a very strong and passionate 

heart for ending human trafficking to get this bill on the floor as 

quickly as possible. 

The original TVPA, Trafficking Victims Protection Act, was referred to 4 committees and 11 subcommittees. Many thought that 

was the death knell for it because we would never get it out of 

these committees, but we did just by working painstakingly with 

the leadership. And one by one it was released, either waived or 

marked up, and this bill will move, I think, very, very quickly, 

hopefully, to the President’s desk. 

Thank you so very much. The hearing is adjourned. 

[Whereupon, at 4:43 p.m., the subcommittee was adjourned.] 

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SUBCOMMITTEE HEARING NOTICE 

COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN AFFAIRS 

U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

WASHINGTON, DC 20515-6!28 

Subcommittee on Africa, Global Health, Global Human Rights, and International Organizations 

Christopher H. Smith (R-NJ), Chairman 

May 2, 2017 

TO: MEMBERS OF THE COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN AFFAIRS 

You are respectfully requested to attend an OPEN hearing of the Committee on Foreign Affairs_ to 

be held by the Subcommittee on Africa. Global Health. Global Human Rights. and International 

Organizations in Room 2172 of the Rayburn House Oftice Building (and available lh·e on the Committee 

website at (!Ltpl/www.ForcignAJ}illJ:Ji.h.Q\l~'-lilll): 

DATE: 

TIME: 

SUBJECT: 

WITNESSES: 

Tuesday, May 2, 2017 

2:00p.m. 

Winning the Fight Against Hmnan Trafticking: l11c Frederick Douglass 

Reauthorization Act 

Mr. Robert Benz 

Co-Founder and Executive Vice President 

Frederick Douglass Family Initiatives 

Ms. Jo Becker 

Advocacy Director 

Children· s Rights Division 

Human Rights Watch 

Mr. Tim Gehring 

Policy and Research Manager 

International Justice Mission 

Ms. Melysa Sperber 

Director 

Alliance to End Slavery and Trafficking 

Ms. Malika Saada Saar 

Human Rights Lawyer 

(Co-Founder and Former Fxecutive Director, Human Rights Pn~ject/(Jr GirL\) 

By Direction of the Chairman 

call 

(J/1(./uding 
75

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25321m.eps

COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN AFFAIRS 

CV:IINUTES OF SUBCOMMI'f'l'EH ON Afrlm, Global Heali!J, Gfolml flm1wu Rigllts, awl lnferuatimml OrgmrhMioiJs llEARlNU 

Day _ ____cT:_I::_!e:.:·':.::fl:.::«._)'_~Date ____ M«y 2, 2017 Room 2172 R«ybrmt HOB 

Starting Time 2:05 v.m. Ending Time 4:4!j_p.m. __ _ 

Recesses [iJ (2:18 to 2:49 )( __ to __ )( __ to __ ) (_to __ ) (_to __ )( __ to_) 

Presiding Member(s) 

Rep. Chris Smitlr 

Cl~ecft all c>[thefo//owlng thutapp(F: 

Open Se..sio11 QJ 

Exccutin ~sed) Session 0 Televised lLJ 

TITLE OF HEARING: 

Electroni<·ally Rel'onlcl..(tapcd) IZJ 

Stenographic Uecord lLJ 

Winning the Fight Ag«inst Human TN({ficking: The Frederick Douglttss Reautlwrization Act 

SUBCOMMITTEE M!Cl\lliJWS l'UJ<:SENT: 

Rep. f(m·en Russ 

NON-SUBCOMMITTEE MEMBERS PRESENT: (Mark with an* ({they are not membe1~ 9f.fu/l committee.) 

Rep. Ann Wagner 

HkAIUN(j WITNESSES: Same as meeting notice attached? Yes [2J NoD 

(fj "no", p!ease list be! OJ,!' and include title, agency, department, or organization.) 

STATEMENTS FOR THE RECORIJ: (List any statements submittcdfor the record.) 

A TEST's "A Pre.,idential AgendajiJr Almlishing Modem SlaveiJ' and Human Trafficking", submitted by 

Ms. Mely.m Sperber 

TIME SCHEDULED TO RECONVENE~-~-~~-

or 

TIME ADJOURNED 4:43p.m. 
76

MATERIAL SUBMITTED FOR THE RECORD BY MS. MELYSA SPERBER, DIRECTOR, 

ALLIANCE TO END SLAVERY AND TRAFFICKING


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77

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25321f-2.eps

Recommendation #17: Integrate Anti-Trafficking Policies and Activities Into Development Programs to Maximize the Impact 

of Foreign Assistance. 

Recommendation #18: leverage U.S. Global leadership to Fight Human Trafficking. 

Recommendation #19: Engage with Civil Society and ~ongress to Reauthorize the Trafficking Victims Protection Act. 

Recornmendation .#20: Stop Traffickers from Profiting Off Taxpayer Dollars. 

A TEST looks forward to engaging directly with the Administration on ways to opcrationalize and 

implement these recommendations in the months and years ahead. 

The complete version of this document can he accessed here: h!tps:!/go.usa.gov/xN55y 

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