I 

116TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. R. 4326 

To amend the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000 relating to determinations with respect to efforts of foreign countries to reduce demand 

for commercial sex acts under the minimum standards for the elimination 

of trafficking. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

SEPTEMBER 12, 2019 

Mrs. WAGNER (for herself, Mr. JEFFRIES, Mr. SMITH of New Jersey, and Mr. 

WALBERG) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Foreign Affairs 

A BILL 

To amend the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000 

relating to determinations with respect to efforts of foreign countries to reduce demand for commercial sex acts 

under the minimum standards for the elimination of 

trafficking. 

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Sex Trafficking De5 mand Reduction Act’’. 

6 SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 

7 Congress finds the following: 


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1 (1) It has been the longstanding position of the 

2 United States to reduce the demand for sex traf3 ficking victims. There is also a wide international 

4 consensus on the necessity of demand reduction in 

5 order to prevent human trafficking. 

6 (2) The United Nations Protocol to Prevent, 

7 Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Espe8 cially Women and Children, Supplementing the 

9 United Nations Convention Against Transnational 

10 Organized Crime of 2000 (also referred to as the 

11 ‘‘Palermo Protocol(s)’’) expressly addresses the re12 quirement that nations make serious efforts to re13 duce demand for trafficked persons. 

14 (3) Article 9, addressing prevention of human 

15 trafficking, specifically directs that, ‘‘States Parties 

16 shall adopt or strengthen legislative or other meas17 ures, such as educational, social or cultural meas18 ures, including through bilateral and multilateral co19 operation, to discourage the demand that fosters all 

20 forms of exploitation of persons, especially women 

21 and children, that leads to trafficking.’’. 

22 (4) The United Nations Protocol, the Europe 

23 Convention on Action against Human Trafficking, 

24 and the 2011 European Union Directive of the Eu25 ropean Parliament and the Council on preventing 


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1 and combating trafficking in human beings also spe2 cifically address the need to prevent human traf3 ficking by reducing demand for trafficking victims. 

4 (5) Research has shown that legal prostitution 

5 increases the demand for prostituted persons and 

6 thus increases the market for sex. As a result, there 

7 is a significant increase in instances of human traf8 ficking. 

9 (6) In 2012, researchers Seo-Young Cho, Axel 

10 Dreher, and Eric Neumayer published their findings 

11 in World Development establishing that, ‘‘The scale 

12 effect of legalized prostitution leads to an expansion 

13 of the prostitution market, increasing human traf14 ficking . . . . On average, countries where prostitu15 tion is legal experience larger reported human traf16 ficking inflows.’’. 

17 (7) In 2005, a study focused on 11 European 

18 Union countries requested by the European Par19 liament’s committee on Women’s Rights and Gender 

20 Equality and performed by Transcrime found that 

21 stricter prostitution laws are correlated with fewer 

22 human trafficking victims. 

23 (8) Case studies published by researchers 

24 Niklas Jakobsson and Andreas Kotsadam support 

25 the possibility of a causal link between harsher prosVerDate Sep 11 2014 03:23 Sep 14, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H4326.IH H4326

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1 titution laws and reduced human trafficking. Ja2 kobsson and Kotsadam found that trafficking of per3 sons for commercial sexual exploitation is least prev4 alent in countries where prostitution is illegal and 

5 most prevalent in countries where prostitution is le6 galized. 

7 (9) Further data has demonstrated the correla8 tion between the adoption of legislation that crim9 inalizes demand and reductions in sex trafficking. 

10 SEC. 3. AMENDMENT RELATING TO DETERMINATIONS 

11 WITH RESPECT TO EFFORTS OF FOREIGN 

12 COUNTRIES TO REDUCE DEMAND FOR COM13 MERCIAL SEX ACTS UNDER THE MINIMUM 

14 STANDARDS FOR THE ELIMINATION OF TRAF15 FICKING. 

16 (a) IN GENERAL.—Paragraph (12) of section 108(b) 

17 of the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000 (22 

18 U.S.C. 7106(b)) is amended to read as follows: 

19 ‘‘(12) Whether the government of the country 

20 has made serious and sustained efforts to— 

21 ‘‘(A) prohibit the purchase of commercial 

22 sex acts to the extent such prohibition is within 

23 the authority of the central government or im24 plement a policy against the purchase of com25 mercial sex acts to the extent that prohibition 


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1 is not within the authority of the central gov2 ernment; 

3 ‘‘(B) educate buyers of commercial sex on 

4 how traffickers exploit prostituted persons for 

5 human trafficking; and 

6 ‘‘(C) reduce demand for participation in 

7 international sex tourism by nationals of the 

8 country.’’. 

9 (b) EFFECTIVE DATE.—The amendment made by 

10 subsection (a) takes effect on the date of the enactment 

11 of this Act and applies with respect to determinations 

12 under subsection (a)(4) of section 108 of the Trafficking 

13 Victims Protection Act of 2000 that are made on or after 

14 such date of enactment. 

Æ 


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