Title: Sex Trafficking Demand Reduction Act
Policy area: International Affairs

Summary:
Sex Trafficking Demand Reduction Act
This bill amends the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000 to declare that, pursuant to the minimum standards for the elimination of sex trafficking, if a government has the authority to prohibit the purchase of commercial sex acts but fails to do so, it shall be deemed to have failed to make serious and sustained efforts to reduce the demand for commercial sex acts.

[Congressional Bills 115th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 466 Introduced in House (IH)]

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115th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 466

  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

                            January 12, 2017

Mr. Hultgren (for himself, Mr. Smith of New Jersey, Mr. Mooney of West 
Virginia, Mr. Pittenger, Mr. Guthrie, Mr. Walberg, and Mrs. Carolyn B. 
Maloney of New York) 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.

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

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Sex Trafficking Demand Reduction 
Act''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

    Congress finds the following:
            (1) It has been the longstanding position of the United 
        States to reduce the demand for sex trafficking victims. There 
        is also a wide international consensus on the necessity of 
        demand reduction in order to prevent human trafficking.
            (2) 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 of 2000 (also referred to as the 
        ``Palermo Protocol(s)'') expressly addresses the requirement 
        that nations make serious efforts to reduce demand for 
        trafficked persons.
            (3) Article nine, addressing prevention of human 
        trafficking specifically directs that, ``States Parties shall 
        adopt or strengthen legislative or other measures, such as 
        educational, social or cultural measures, including through 
        bilateral and multilateral cooperation, to discourage the 
        demand that fosters all forms of exploitation of persons, 
        especially women and children, that leads to trafficking.''.
            (4) The United Nations Protocol, the Europe Convention on 
        Action against Human Trafficking, and the 2011 European Union 
        Directive of the European Parliament and the Council on 
        preventing and combating trafficking in human beings, also 
        specifically address the need to prevent human trafficking by 
        reducing demand for trafficking victims.
            (5) Research has shown that legal prostitution increases 
        the demand for prostituted persons and thus increases the 
        market for sex. As a result, there is a significant increase in 
        instances of human trafficking.
            (6) In 2012 researchers Seo-Young Cho, Axel Dreher, and 
        Eric Neumayer published their findings that demonstrated ``the 
        scale effect of legalizing prostitution leads to an expansion 
        of the prostitution market and thus an increase in human 
        trafficking, while the substitution effect reduces demand for 
        trafficked prostitutes by favoring prostitutes who have legal 
        residence in a country''.
            (7) In 2005 Di Nicola and others provided descriptive 
        statistics focusing on 11 European Union countries. According 
        to their results, stricter prostitution laws are correlated 
        with reduced flows of human trafficking.
            (8) Researchers Niklas Jakobsson and Andreas Kotsadam found 
        a casual link between legal prostitution and increases in human 
        trafficking. Jakobsson and Kotsadam found that trafficking of 
        persons for commercial sexual exploitation is least prevalent 
        in countries where prostitution is illegal and most prevalent 
        in countries where prostitution is legalized.
            (9) Further data has demonstrated the correlation between 
        the adoption of legislation that criminalizes demand and 
        reductions in sex trafficking victims.

SEC. 3. AMENDMENT 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.

    (a) In General.--Section 108 of the Trafficking Victims Protection 
Act of 2000 (22 U.S.C. 7106) is amended by adding at the end the 
following new subsection:
    ``(c) Criteria With Respect to Commercial Sex Acts.--In 
determinations under subsection (b)(12)(A), if the government of the 
country has the authority to prohibit the purchase of commercial sex 
acts and fails to do so, such failure to prohibit the purchase of 
commercial sex acts shall be deemed to be a failure on the part of the 
government to make serious and sustained efforts to reduce the demand 
for commercial sex acts, notwithstanding other efforts made by the 
government to reduce the demand for commercial sex acts.''.
    (b) Effective Date.--The amendment made by subsection (a) takes 
effect on the date of the enactment of this Act and applies with 
respect to determinations under subsection (b)(12)(A) of section 108 of 
the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000 that are made on or 
after such date of enactment.
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