Stop Violence Against Women
Human Trafficking: Background
- Issue Brief: End Human Trafficking
Trafficking of persons is a global human rights problem. Victims are trafficked into a range of forced labor situations including farm work, sweatshops, domestic servitude, and sexual slavery. Victims of trafficking are subjected to sexual abuse and other forms of violence. Trafficking involves transporting people away from the communities they live in by the threat or use of violence, deception, or coercion for the purpose of exploitation as forced or enslaved workers. According to the US Department of State, each year an estimated 600,000-800,000 men, women, and children are trafficked across international borders. Human trafficking is a crime that requires international cooperation to stop.
Trafficking violates a range of human rights, including the rights to: physical and mental integrity; life; liberty; security of the person; dignity; freedom from slavery, slavery-like practices, torture and other inhuman and degrading treatment; family life; freedom of movement; privacy; the highest attainable standard of health; and safe and secure housing. Amnesty International’s “Stop Violence Against Women” campaign highlights the issue of human trafficking in all its forms. The Amnesty International report, Kosovo (Serbia and Montenegro): So does that mean I have rights? Protecting the human rights of women and girls trafficked for forced prostitution in Kosovo, details the widespread abuses of women and girls trafficked into Kosovo. Trafficking into sexual slavery has become a major concern in this region, especially following the deployment of an international peacekeeping force and the establishment of a UN civilian administration.
Recognizing the importance of trafficking, the United States passed the Trafficking Victims Protection Act and other important legislation to hold accountable the perpetrators of such crimes and protect the victims. The United States has gone further by ratifying the United Nations Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, especially Women and Children, and the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime, which are the first international instruments to define “trafficking in persons.” These treaties make clear that trafficking is a crime and guarantees trafficking victims certain protections and assistance, including protection of their privacy and physical safety, as well as provisions for their physical, psychological, and social recovery. Parties to the treaty should provide temporary or permanent residency to victims of trafficking in appropriate cases. Amnesty International urges the United States and all Parties to implement fully the provisions of these treaties.
Amnesty International USA Recommendations:
- The US Government should prosecute all traffickers and expand the
statute of limitations for prosecuting traffickers to ten years.
- The US Government should protect trafficking survivors by requiring US immigration officers to ask foreign persons detained if they have been trafficked before they are sent back to their home countries in expedited removal proceedings.
- The US Government should direct Homeland Security officers to inform trafficking victims that they can work with law enforcement to help prosecute their traffickers; that they have help available under U.S. law, including the possibility of a visa; and to communicate with those who may have been trafficked in languages they understand.
- The US Government should ensure that the Department of Health and Human Services grants full benefits to child trafficking survivors without requiring cooperation with law enforcement.
- The US Government should implement the Department of Defense’s policy on trafficking designed to improve training, accountability, and transparency.
- The US Government should implement existing US laws and pass new legislation to hold accountable private military contractors involved in trafficking in persons.
- The US Government should provide proper training to federal law enforcement, prosecutors, victim-witness personnel, as well as state and local police, prosecutors and service providers.
Download issue brief in PDF. »
