|
There
are sex and forced labor victims being transported on U.S. highways in
secrecy.
This was not a choice for them. They were either kidnapped here in the
U.S. or abroad, or had applied to have jobs as waitresses, singers,
models, etc., but instead, they had their means of escape, sense of self
and history stolen from them. Most of these victims are repeatedly
drugged, broken in... and sold.
|
In The United States of America
President Abraham
Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863, as the
nation approached its third year of bloody civil war. The proclamation
declared "that all persons held as slaves" within the rebellious
states "are, and henceforward shall be free." Despite this
expansive wording, the Emancipation Proclamation was limited in many
ways. It applied only to states that had seceded from the Union, leaving
slavery untouched in the loyal border states. It also expressly exempted
parts of the Confederacy that had already come under Northern control.
Most important, the freedom it promised depended upon Union military
victory. It was not until 1865 in the 13th Amendment, that an effective
legal tool was promulgated to destroy slavery in the United States.
The 13th Amendment
to the Constitution declared that "Neither slavery nor involuntary
servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have
been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place
subject to their jurisdiction." Formally abolishing slavery in the
United States, the 13th Amendment was passed by the Congress on January
31, 1865, and ratified by the states on December 6, 1865. Yet,
this was not the end of slavery in America.
Human Trafficking is the newest, most
profuse and fasting growing form of slavery that the nations of this
world has had to combat in nearly a decade.
In 2000, confronted with the unique nature of
human trafficking slavery in the U.S., Congress promulgated a new
Federal law, The Trafficking Victims Protection Act ("TVPA") that
criminalizes human trafficking. The TVPA has since been reauthorized in
2003, 2005 and 2008 and continues to be a guide stone for several
State's enacting their own legislature to prosecute human trafficking.
The TVPA defines human trafficking as"...the recruitment, harboring,
transportation, provision, or obtaining of a person for labor or
services, through the use of force, fraud, or coercion for the purpose
of subjection to involuntary servitude, peonage, debt bondage, or
slavery” and highlights trafficking for the purpose of sexual
exploitation as when "...a commercial sex act is induced by force,
fraud, or coercion, or in which the person induced to perform such an
act has not attained 18 years of age." The TVPA does not just
provide legal tools for prosecution of traffickers and those who would
aid traffickers, it also provides valuable protection for victims of
trafficking. The Act proclaims, "...an alien who is a victim of a
severe form of trafficking in persons shall be eligible for benefits and
services under any Federal or State program or activity funded or
administered by any official or agency described in subparagraph (B) to
the same extent as an alien who is admitted to the United States as a
refugee under section 207 of the Immigration and Nationality Act."
In Florida
Florida State
has taken the initiative to enact
its own State laws that
criminalize different forms of
trafficking. Namely, §787.06,
Florida Statutes, generally
criminalizes human trafficking in
the state. The Statute defines human
trafficking as the “transporting,
soliciting, recruiting, harboring,
providing, or obtaining another
person for transport.” The
Statute provides for the prosecution
of any person who intentionally or
knowingly participates or attempts
to participate or whose
participation in anyway amounts to
financial gain, in the human
trafficking of a victim into forced
labor and/or sexual services. Sex
trafficking of adults is categorized
as a second degree felony at
§796.045, Florida Statues. However,
sex trafficking of minors is
categorized as a first degree felony
at §796.035, Florida Statutes. Adult
trafficking victims must prove
force, fraud, or coercion. However,
minor sex trafficking victims are
exempt from this requirement. Labor
trafficking is categorized as second
degree felony at §787.05, Florida
Statutes. Also, §895.02, Florida
Statutes, allows for the prosecution
of all human trafficking offenses as
Racketeering Influenced and Corrupt
Organization ("RICO") offenses.
Prosecution under the RICO statute
allows for greater criminal
penalties.
International Efforts
In 2000, in
Palermo, Italy the United Nations
adopted The
Protocol to
Prevent, Suppress and Punish
Trafficking in Persons, especially
Women and Children
("Protocol"), one of three
international protocols attached to
the United Nations
Convention
against Transnational Organized
Crime.
The Protocol is the first global,
legally binding instrument on trafficking and the only
internationally recognized agreed definition of
trafficking in persons, that definition is:
"... the recruitment, transportation, transfer,
harboring or receipt of persons, by means of the
threat or use of force or other forms of coercion,
of abduction, of fraud, of deception, of the abuse
of power or of a position of vulnerability or of the
giving or receiving of payments or benefits to
achieve the consent of a person having control over
another person, for the purpose of exploitation.
Exploitation shall include, at a minimum, the
exploitation of the prostitution of others or other
forms of sexual exploitation, forced labor or
services, slavery or practices similar to slavery,
servitude or the removal of organs;"
The purpose of the Protocol is to
facilitate convergence of national cooperation with the
investigation and prosecution of human traffickers. An
additional objective of the Protocol is to protect and
assist the victims of trafficking in persons with full
respect for their human rights. The Protocol entered into
force on 25 December 2003. By June 2010, the Trafficking
Protocol had been ratified by 117 countries and 137 parties.
|
