IV
103D CONGRESS
2D SESSION
H. CON. RES. 254
Expressing the sense of the Congress concerning the trafficking of Burmese
women and girls into Thailand for the purposes of forced prostitution.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
JUNE 13, 1994
Ms. SLAUGHTER (for herself, Mrs. MEEK, Ms. BROWN of Florida, Mrs.
SCHROEDER, Mrs. THURMAN, Ms. ROYBAL-ALLARD, and Mrs. MEYERS
of Kansas) submitted the following concurrent resolution; which was re-
ferred to the Committee on Foreign Affairs
CONCURRENT RESOLUTION
Expressing the sense of the Congress concerning the traffick-
ing of Burmese women and girls into Thailand for the
purposes of forced prostitution.
Whereas credible reports indicate that thousands of Burmese
women and girls are being trafficked into Thailand with
false promises of good paying jobs in restaurants or fac-
tories, and then forced to work in brothels under slavery-
like conditions that include sexual and physical violence,
debt bondage, exposure to HIV, passport deprivation, and
illegal confinement;
Whereas credible reports also indicate that members of the
Thai police force are often actively involved in, and profit
from, the trafficking of Burmese women and girls for the
purposes of forced prostitution;
•HCON 254 IH
Whereas the United States Government conducts training
programs for the Thai police and United States arms and
equipment are sold to the Thai police;
Whereas the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of
Discrimination Against Women requires all States Par-
ties ‘‘to take all appropriate measures, including legisla-
tion, to suppress all forms of traffic in women and exploi-
tation of prostitution of women’’;
Whereas Article 1 of the 1956 Supplementary Convention on
the Abolition of Slavery, the Slave Trade, and Institu-
tions and Practices Similar to Slavery calls for the com-
plete abolition or abandonment of debt bondage;
Whereas forced labor, defined under the 1930 Forced Labor
Convention as ‘‘all work or service which is exacted from
any person under the menace of any penalty and for
which the said person has not offered himself [sic] volun-
tarily,’’ is internationally prohibited;
Whereas the 1949 Convention for the Suppression of Traffic
in Persons and of the Exploitation of the Prostitution of
Others finds the traffic in persons for the purposes of
prostitution ‘‘incompatible with the dignity and worth of
the human person,’’ and calls on States Parties to punish
any person who procures for the purposes of prostitution,
keeps, manages or knowingly finances a brothel, or rents
premises for the prostitution of others;
Whereas Assistant Secretary of State for Human Rights and
Humanitarian Affairs John Shattuck has testified that
the United States ‘‘urgently needs to encourage countries
in which trafficking of women and children goes on with
impunity to enact new laws, and to enforce existing laws.
A particular target of this stepped-up law enforcement
•HCON 254 IH
should be government officials who participate in or con-
done trafficking, as well as brothel owners and traffick-
ers’’; and
Whereas Secretary of State Warren Christopher stated before
the 1993 World Conference on Human Rights that
‘‘[g]uaranteeing human rights is a moral imperative with
respect to both women and men’’: Now, therefore, be it
Resolved by the House of Representatives (the Senate
concurring), That it is the sense of the Congress that—
(1) trafficking in persons violates the fun-
damental principle of human dignity, and forced
prostitution involving physical coercion or debt bond-
age constitutes a form of forced labor and a slavery-
like practice;
(2) the United States State Department should
continue to press the Thai Government to strictly
enforce all laws that can lead to the prosecution of
those involved in trafficking and forced prostitution,
including procurers, traffickers, pimps, brothel own-
ers, and members of the Thai police who may be
complicit;
(3) the State Department should ensure that
Thai police participants in United States Govern-
ment-sponsored police training programs are system-
atically vetted to exclude those who are implicated in
trafficking and forced prostitution;
•HCON 254 IH
(4) the executive branch should take steps to
assure that weapons and equipment provided or sold
to the Thai police do not become available to mem-
bers of those forces who might be involved in traf-
ficking, forced prostitution, or abuse of women and
girls who are apprehended;
(5) the State Department should urge the Thai
Government to protect the rights and safety of Bur-
mese women and girls in Thailand who are freed
from brothels or who are arrested as illegal immi-
grants because their status as trafficking victims is
unclear;
(6) the United States Trade Representative
should extend the evaluation of a petition on Thai-
land’s labor rights situation that was filed last year
by the AFL–CIO in order to include a review of
Thai official involvement in trafficking and forced
prostitution;
(7) the State Department should appoint a sen-
ior advisor on women’s human rights to the Under-
secretary for Global Affairs who would serve as an
internal advocate to ensure that United States for-
eign policy addresses women’s human rights viola-
tions, including trafficking and forced prostitution;
•HCON 254 IH
(8) the United States Agency for International
Development should target a portion of its assist-
ance to Thailand for AIDS prevention and control to
the foreign population in Thailand, particularly Bur-
mese women and girls in the Thai sex industry; and
(9) the State Department should report to Con-
gress, within 6 months of the date of this resolution,
on actions that it has taken to advocate that the
Thai Government implement the above steps.
Æ