Human Trafficking
Accountability and Action: USAID’s Counter-Trafficking Policy
Sarah Mendelson. USAID official photo.
Sarah Mendelson is USAID’s deputy assistant administrator of the Bureau of Democracy, Conflict & Humanitarian Assistance. This item was originally posted at FTS Blog.
Last week, the White House hosted the annual Presidential Inter-Agency Task Force (PITF) on counter-trafficking in persons (C-TIP). This high-level meeting, chaired by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, is an opportunity for leadership throughout the Administration to reaffirm our commitment to combatting trafficking in persons, outline steps taken, and those to come.
This was my second time attending the PITF, and this year I was especially proud when USAID Administrator Rajiv Shah announced the Agency’s new policy on Counter-Trafficking in Persons (C-TIP) (pdf), delivering on a promise he made to Secretary Clinton a year ago.
This policy draws on the best practices from the last decade and input from experts around the world. It places a premium on learning and evaluation so we can make sure we’re pursuing the most effective approaches; focuses on innovation and technology, using the same tools traffickers use to, in this case, raise awareness of the dangers of TIP, provide trainings, and support victims; and champions the need to create exciting and effective partnerships because no one person, organization, or agency can tackle this issue alone.
Perhaps most critical, it elevates the Agency’s focus on C-TIP in conflict and post-conflict contexts. As someone who has worked in this arena for over a decade, research shows that TIP is significantly higher in and around conflict and crisis-affected regions—whether during war, peacekeeping operations, stabilization efforts, or following a natural disaster.
Widespread sex trafficking of women and girls in conflict and post-conflict settings is an unfortunate and prevalent reality. There is also an increased danger for children, separated from parents and caretakers during conflict or crisis, to be forced into child labor. The good news is that countries recovering from crisis or conflict often have greater political space for tackling challenges and instituting change. USAID will target this particularly acute period of need and moment of opportunity with specialized and enhanced interventions.
USAID is serious about these issues. Last December, the Agency worked with the White House, Department of State, Department of Defense, and civil society groups at home and abroad to launch the first U.S. National Action Plan (NAP) on Women, Peace, and Security. The United States now joins 34 countries around the world with plans in place. This is only the beginning. USAID is hard at work on an implementation plan, and we look forward to collaborating and elevating our efforts to combat TIP.
Strengthening the Fight against Modern Slavery: USAID’s Counter-Trafficking in Persons Initiative
Ambassador-at-Large Luis CdeBaca, Department of State. (Official Photo)
Earlier today, I had the privilege of joining USAID Administrator Raj Shah at the White House to announce the Agency for International Development’s new counter-trafficking in persons (C-TIP) initiative. As the Ambassador who spearheads the United States’ diplomatic efforts on this issue, I’m always happy to see our partners across government strengthening their efforts to combat modern slavery. USAID’s work against trafficking is critical to this struggle, and this new policy shows what a priority it is for the Agency’s top leadership. I’m particularly optimistic about some of the new tools and techniques that this new C-TIP policy will help develop and promote.
Both at the State Department and at USAID, we are supporting programs around the world that fight human trafficking using the 3P Paradigm—preventing trafficking, protecting survivors, and prosecuting those responsible for exploitation. Through rigorous monitoring and evaluation, we know which practices are working, and we’ll continue to support those things that are doing the most good. But the reality remains—every year there are about 4,000 trafficking prosecutions in response to a crime that victimizes as many as 27 million men, women, and children around the world.
That’s why the new C-TIP policy’s focus on innovation is so important. As we move forward with this struggle, we’re going to need to change the way we fight this crime. Whether through new applications of empirical research, harnessing modern technology and social networks, or integrating anti-trafficking initiatives into other development efforts, we need to explore new approaches and cultivate new ideas as we work to eradicate this crime once and for all.
But USAID’s new policy shows a true understanding that before we can make real progress against this crime on a global scale, we need to get our own house in order. In the Quadrennial Diplomacy and Development Review (QDDR), Secretary Clinton made clear that the State Department and USAID would be tasked with stepping up their own internal anti-trafficking efforts. The new C-TIP initiative answers that call, building on the Agency’s Counter-Trafficking Code of Conduct that holds USAID employees and partners to the highest standards of behavior.
As USAID works to implement this new policy, I look forward to collaborating with Administrator Shah and his team as we make new inroads in the fight against modern slavery. Together, we will work to carry out the Obama Administration’s commitment to deliver once and for all on the American promise of freedom.
Mobilizing the U.S. Government to Protect and Empower Women and Girls
In October 2010, I was honored to be at the UN Security Council meeting where Secretary of State Clinton announced that the United States would prepare its own National Action Plan to implement commitments on Women, Peace and Security. Having served on the UN Civil Society Advisory Group on Resolution 1325 and as an adviser to UNIFEM’s executive director, I saw this as an historic step in mobilizing the U.S. government’s efforts to protect and empower women and girls in the context of armed conflict.
Over the past year, I’ve been pleased to work with colleagues at the White House, State, Defense and other agencies – along with our civil society friends in the U.S. and in conflict-affected countries – to identify the concrete and measurable actions incorporated in the National Action Plan announced by the President today.
From experience in Angola, South Africa, Haiti, Central African Republic and beyond, I know first-hand the importance of empowering women to be catalysts for positive change in armed conflict and displacement scenarios, and ensuring their participation in peace negotiations and post conflict reconstruction and governance.
In particular, the systematic exclusion of women from the negotiation of peace agreements and implementing bodies is a principal reason why so many of these agreements ultimately fail and countries return to conflict. Unless women are present, issues like accountability for past abuses, psycho-social support for victims of violence, restoration of health and educational systems, reintegration of displaced persons and refugees, and trafficking in persons are often inadequately addressed. When the momentum for political reconciliation or military disengagement starts to wane, women who have viewed such peace processes as only for the benefit of the armed combatants have little incentive to press the parties to see these processes through to the end.
At USAID, we’ve already taken key steps to address these problems. Every USAID project proposal must have a “gender impact statement”; we have a tough new anti-trafficking code for ourselves and our development partners; gender is incorporated as a cross–cutting priority for all our initiatives in food security, global health, climate change, democracy and governance, economic growth and humanitarian relief; and we have funded the participation of women in peace processes and reconstruction conferences around the world. We also brought on a senior coordinator for gender equality and women’s empowerment – the remarkable Carla Koppell – who is working with Caren Grown, Sarah Mendelson and others to insist that gender is in our agency’s DNA.
I view these steps as the down payment on an “IOU” we owe to women faced with conflict around the world. We look forward to working with host governments, civil society groups, partners, friends, and, most importantly, local women on the ground. It is their wisdom and expertise we must rely on to succeed. The guiding vision must be, “Nothing about them without them.”
USAID Training Brings Justice to Victim of Trafficking Attempt
While USAID’s observation of the annual 16 Days of Activism against Gender Violence ended last week, stories like the one below will continue to occur – and USAID remains committed to working to end human trafficking in Nepal, Asia, and around the world.
“[USAID’s training helped me] take action to protect my own daughter, who was so close to being sold by brokers. I was lucky,” said Sanu Tamang, a resident of Syaule village in Nepal’s Sindhupalchowk district.
Deputy Superintendent of the Police Thaneshwor Regmi gives a presentation at a community orientation session on the Trafficking in Persons Act. Photo credit: Center for Legal Research and Resource Development
Earlier in the year, Tamang’s neighbor, Ravi, had lured Tamang’s daughter and her sister-in-law into travelling to India for an attractive job opportunity. The girls met Ravi in Kathmandu, where he had hired a taxi to drive them across the border into India. Suspecting the movement, an NGO vigilante team and border security force trained under a previous USAID program intercepted the taxi. While the girls were being questioned, Ravi and his friends escaped.
The girls eventually returned to their family. Upon returning, they and their family came to fully understand how close the girls had been to being trafficked. A shocked Tamang, now more aware of the laws and systems to punish traffickers, filed a legal case against Ravi and his friends. He contacted the USAID-supported national Center for Legal Research and Resource Development for legal aid and counseling to strengthen his case and submitted a report to the police. An investigation ensued, and Ravi was arrested.
Glad that he was able to take action, Tamang shared, “No trafficker should be able to get away without being punished and no victim deprived of justice. I want to ensure that traffickers like Ravi don’t get an opportunity to exploit other girls.”
Trafficking in persons is a serious problem in Nepal, with an estimated 15,000 Nepali women and girls trafficked annually to India and another 7,500 trafficked domestically for commercial sexual exploitation. In addition, an estimated 20,000 to 25,000 Nepali women become involuntary domestic workers each year within Nepal. While most attention is focused on the exploitation of women and children, cross-border labor trafficking of men is also a growing concern. Nepal is on the Tier 2 list in the U.S. State Department’s 2011 Trafficking in Persons Report.
For more information on USAID/Nepal’s efforts to prevent trafficking, please visit http://nepal.usaid.gov/our-work/program-area/democracy-and-governance.html.
Combating Human Trafficking
As part of USAID’s 16 Days of Activism Against Gender Violence we wanted to share with you some information on an issue that the Congressional Women’s Caucus has been working on diligently to end across the globe: human trafficking.
According to Department of State estimates, roughly 800,000 people are trafficked across borders each year. If trafficking within countries is included in the total world figures, official U.S. estimates indicate that some 2 to 4 million people are trafficked annually. On June 14, 2010, the State Department issued its 10th annual report on human trafficking. We were pleased that members of the bipartisan Congressional Caucus for Women’s Issues got to sit down with Luis CdeBaca, the Ambassador-at-Large for the Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons for the State Department, to discuss this report and the status of U.S. anti-trafficking efforts.
Part of this discussion included the reauthorization of the Trafficking Victims Protection Act, which combats sex trafficking and labor trafficking across the globe by increasing the penalties for traffickers and providing assistance for victims. It is vital that we continue to revise this measure, ensuring the State Department has the authority needed to combat trafficking.
This reauthorization would increase monitoring on child labor within the United States. It would also focus our assistance on the most vulnerable populations abroad, looking at post-conflict situations and humanitarian emergencies for those in need. As this measure moves through the legislative process, the Women’s Caucus will provide input to strengthen our country’s ability to combat trafficking. The victimization of women, children and exploited workers cannot be tolerated and Congress should continue to fight for those who cannot fight for themselves.
Victim of Sex Trade Inspires Others to Adopt Healthy Behaviors
On World AIDS Day, I am reminded of a recent visit to Guatemala where I visited an old stretch of railroad called La Linea, which is now home to sex workers who rent tiny rooms for business each day.
Their business is a precarious one. The solicitation of sex in exchange for payment brings inherent and obvious health risks to individuals who engage in this behavior, but also for the community. For those who make a living in commercial sex work, education is key to ensuring they are able to protecting themselves by reducing the risk of contracting HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases.
After speaking with Noemi about HIV prevention and the importance of knowing her HIV status, a woman receives counseling and a voluntary rapid HIV test. Photo: PSI
Guatemala’s HIV prevalence rate is less than one percent among the general population. HIV in this country is classified as a “concentrated epidemic”, because cases are generally much higher among particular groups of people. One in every twenty sex workers in Guatemala is HIV-positive. Programs that educate these at-risk women on how to protect themselves will be critical to the country’s ability to keep the epidemic from spreading beyond this group to surrounding communities.
I met with a peer educator named Noemi, who works with a USAID-supported education program that is implemented by a PSI affiliate in Guatemala. Shunned by family after the death of her mother, Noemi was forced from an early age to fend for herself. At fourteen, her grandmother sent her away and suddenly she stood alone in the world.
Using Technology to Combat Trafficking
Mark Latonero, PhD, is the Research Director at the Annenberg Center on Communication Leadership & Policy at the University of Southern California.
In September 2008, Marvin Epps contacted a 16-year-old girl via MySpace and encouraged her to travel to work for him. Once she agreed, he then advertised her sexual services online. Fortunately in November 2010, Epps was sentenced to 12 years and 7 months in federal prison for sex trafficking of a minor.
While social networking sites and other online forums chat rooms have brought many benefits to our society, a darker narrative has also emerged – online technologies are being used to facilitate trafficking in persons. At the Annenberg Center for Communication Leadership & Policy at the University of Southern California, our research has revealed that indeed traffickers advertise on a variety of sites, such as Backspace, MySpace, and online escort services to recruit and sell trafficking victims.
Last year evidence emerged that the Adult Services section on Craigslist was being used to facilitate sex trafficking. Amid widespread media attention, and after receiving a letter from 17 state attorneys general and numerous anti-trafficking NGOs, Craigslist agreed to shut down the site.
Yet what if we can harness internet technologies combat trafficking? Our Center recently released a report, Human Trafficking Online: The Role of Social Networking Sites and Online Classifieds to examine this question. The report discusses how a number of already existing technologies can assist law enforcement to combat trafficking, including photo recognition, mapping technologies, mobile phone applications, and online data collection and analytics.
Moreover, technology companies such as Microsoft and Juniper Networks, as well as nonprofits are also investing in new tools to address both sex and labor trafficking. Just two weeks ago, Fair Trade Fund, a California-based nonprofit with funding from the U.S. State Department unveiled a website that allows users to measure their own “slavery footprint,” illustrating the impact of forced labor.
For those seeking to develop technology for anti-trafficking initiatives, we suggest maintaining a focus on victims and survivors as the ultimate beneficiaries of any technological intervention. We also encourage seeking cooperation and innovation across government, nongovernmental, and private sectors. Finally, as technologies have the potential of encroaching upon fundamental rights such as privacy, security, and freedom of expression, we urge developers and users of the technology to reflect on the full range of rights implicated by any information-collecting activity associated with data tracking and monitoring.
Teaching Children to Resist Traffickers
Submitted by Guest Blogger Aida Salcinovic, independent journalist
“Are you a stranger?” an eight-year-old Kosovar girl asks her teacher. She is playing an educational game with a group of children at an asylum center in Bosnia–Herzegovina. The game, designed by USAID’s Sustainable Interventions to Combat Trafficking in Persons (SUSTAIN)(pdf 138KB) and the Women’s Initiative Foundation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, educates children on the dangers of trafficking and challenges them to think about whom they should, and should not, trust. It also provides them with a forum for discussing their questions and talking about their experiences.
A Roma out-of school girl learns about dangers of human trafficking through a popular children’s game. Photo credit: Marijana Dinek of the Bosnian Women’s Initiative (NGO)
Children take turns rolling the dice, and when it’s their turn, they are asked a question by a teacher who has been specifically trained to work with refugee children at risk of trafficking. Questions are designed to help children recognize safe and unsafe situations and to encourage them to make sound choices. Children learn, for example, that they should never go with a stranger—even if that person offers them help or invites them to join in a fun activity. Over the course of the game, the children’s answers become more confident: “I won’t go with a stranger—not even to play video games or watch a movie.”
A twelve-year-old describes how an older boy approached her near her school and offered her chocolate. She concludes proudly, “But I ran away!” The children quickly learn that no chocolate or video game is worth the risk.
This simple game has allowed educators to reach out to youth at risk of trafficking in an innovative and effective way. While the overall number of trafficking victims has been declining in Bosnia–Herzegovina, growing numbers of children have been trafficked for organized begging. Roma children are particularly vulnerable, as low employment rates in the community can lead to children to beg (and to fall victim to organized crime). Trafficking in the region has also become more sophisticated and therefore more difficult to detect. Victims of sexual exploitation, for example, are harbored in private apartments (rather than in bars or other public places). As a result, educating those most at risk in how to identify potentially dangerous situations and avoid them is more essential than ever.
The SUSTAIN project, which is implemented by Catholic Relief Services (CRS), raises awareness and educates new generations about the dangers of human trafficking. CRS’s approach is cross-sectoral and includes experts from NGOs as well as teachers, education experts, and orphanage personnel. All of these actors play a crucial role in helping at-risk youth recognize potential trafficking situations and avoid becoming victims, helping to prevent and stem trafficking.
The US Government remains committed to helping Bosnia–Herzegovina combat trafficking through projects such as SUSTAIN.
The Multiple Roles of Police in Combating Trafficking in Persons
Eric Beinhart, Associate Director, Department of Justice, International Criminal Investigative Training Assistance Program (ICITAP). Eric has been detailed to USAID as a Senior Criminal Justice Advisor since February 2009.
People typically associate police with the investigation and prosecution of Trafficking in Persons (TIP) cases, but they often do not know the critical role that police play in combating TIP through prevention, protection, and the building of partnerships.
Bob Barlow, Deputy Director of ICITAP, presents counter-TIP training in Indonesia. Photo courtesy of ICITAP
In many countries police are the largest representative of government and should be seen as key instruments to combating TIP. Police can work closely with citizens and civil society organizations to help implement civic education programs, community and school intervention programs for youths at risk, and community meetings to discuss crime problems in an effort to prevent TIP. As first responders to crimes, police play a vital protection role by connecting TIP victims with medical and social services. Police also strengthen the connection between rule of law and education, social services, civil society and local governance.
Unfortunately, official corruption, especially police corruption, is a major problem when it comes to combating TIP. USAID’s work to strengthen civil society and media in various countries, however, helps empower citizens to hold their governments accountable.
In terms of prosecution, TIP programming often places too much emphasis on building the capacity of police to investigate TIP cases. Teaching investigative skills to police who work in an agency that lacks basic policies and procedures, fundamental leadership and management principles, and consistent staffing patterns is akin to buying chandeliers to install in a mansion before the foundation is built. This is why, in the post-Quadrennial Diplomacy and Development Review World, the U.S. Government must pursue a strong interagency approach to combating TIP.
Indonesia is an excellent example of how close cooperation between the Department of Justice, the Department of State’s Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons (G/TIP), the Department of State’s International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Bureau (INL), and USAID has made impressive progress in combating TIP. The Department of Justice’s International Criminal Investigative Training Assistance Program (ICITAP), funded by GTIP, pursued a “Point of Origin” strategy in Indonesia where remote locations used by criminals to traffic in persons, drugs, endangered species, and illegal timber were targeted for combating TIP. USAID collaborated with ICITAP to identify local NGOs working on TIP, and ICITAP then organized and presented joint counter-TIP training for police and NGO members. This partnership created a solid foundation for information sharing between citizens and police on TIP, which led to several arrests and convictions. The project also produced master police trainers who were then deployed throughout the country. This approach was incorporated into the long-term sustainable institutional development program that ICITAP launched with the Indonesian National Police in 2000 with funding from the Department of State’s International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Bureau.
Police can play a critical, multiplier role in addressing human trafficking around the world. However, USAID and the interagency must use caution when considering police assistance for trafficking in persons programs and be vigilant in identifying corruption and human rights issues beforehand.
Partnerships to End Child Sex Tourism
Guest post by Marina Colby, the Legislative Advisor to ECPAT-USA
Child sex tourism is an egregious crime that can occur right under our noses by perpetrators who may believe that by having sex with children, they are helping them and contributing to the local economy. As one child sex tourist stated: “On this trip, I’ve had sex with a 14 year-old girl in Mexico and a 15 year-old in Colombia. I’m helping them financially. If they don’t have sex with me, they may not have enough food. If someone has a problem with me doing this, let UNICEF feed them.”
While it is difficult to determine the magnitude of the problem given the lack of research and the illicit nature of the issue, according to the International Labor Organization (ILO), approximately 2 million children around the world are victims of commercial sexual exploitation. Many of these children suffer at the hands of child sex tourists, individuals who travel to engage in sexual activity with children.
Billboard on the road between Cancun and the Riviera Maya section of Mexico in 2007. Photo Credit: ECPAT
Despite growing awareness of the commercial sexual exploitation of children and human trafficking, child sex tourism continues to be a lucrative industry. Even prior to the recent global economic crisis, the sex industry, including child sex tourism, has been a significant contributor to gross domestic product (GDP) in a number of countries. We are now seeing emerging destinations for child sex tourists in the Americas, Africa and Eastern Europe. It’s important to note that this type of exploitation can occur anywhere in the world and no country or tourism destination is immune. Moreover, child sex tourists may be foreigners or domestic nationals who are traveling within their own country.
Countries with thriving sex tourism are also likely to suffer from widespread poverty, weak rule of law, and vast income gaps. Such poverty often correlates with illiteracy, limited employment opportunities, and bleak financial circumstances for families. Children in these families can become easy targets for human traffickers and sex tourists. (more…)
