Clinton pledges to fight international trafficking of women (03/15/98)

Clinton pledges to fight international trafficking of women

by Yaro Bihun
Special to The Ukrainian Weekly

WASHINGTON - President Bill Clinton has announced a series of measures his administration will take to curb the abuse of women worldwide and especially the international trafficking of women, a problem that has plagued Ukraine and some of the other states of that region.

Addressing a special White House ceremony on March 11, marking International Women's Day (March 8), the president outlined his plan of action, which includes an expansion of U.S. efforts on behalf of women at home and overseas, and the convening of an international conference to develop new strategies to combat the international trafficking of women.

Adding their voices on behalf of women's rights at the ceremony were: First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton, Secretary of State Madeleine K. Albright, Attorney General Janet Reno, U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan and Advisor to the Prime Minister of Thailand Saisuree Chutikul.

Secretary Albright, who had just returned from an international trip that began in Kyiv, said the government of Ukraine asked, and the United States agreed, to collaborate on a joint strategy to combat trafficking of women and girls to and from Ukraine.

"Our goal is to make this a model of international cooperation and to mobilize people everywhere to respond to this pernicious trafficking in human beings - with a stoplight visible around the equator and from pole to pole," she added.

President Clinton said he has instructed Secretary Albright and U.S. Agency for International Development Administrator Brian Atwood to expand U.S. international efforts to combat violence against women and earmarked $10 million to strengthen partnerships in this endeavor with governments and private organizations.

In combating the "inhumane practice of trafficking of women," the president said he also has asked Attorney General Reno "to make sure that our own laws are adequate to the task we face here at home; that trafficking is prevented, victims are protected, traffickers are punished."

President Clinton said the United States also will use its consular and law enforcement presence overseas to help combat trafficking worldwide, by assisting victims, helping improve legislation, training judges and law enforcement officials, and by establishing public education campaigns abroad.

In addition to using the U.S.-Ukraine partnership on this issue as a model for other nations to follow, President Clinton said he has asked his Interagency Council on Women to convene an international conference "to cast a spotlight on this human rights atrocity and develop new strategies to combat it."

The first lady, who has spearheaded the drive to combat the trafficking of women, especially since her visit to Lviv last November, appealed again on their behalf.

"We must give voice to the more than 1 million women who are trafficked every year in the former Soviet Union and all around the world," she said.

"These women and girls are desperate for economic opportunity. They think they're applying for jobs as baby-sitters, waitresses and sales clerks. Many think they are following their dreams and, instead, they find themselves in a nightmare, sold as part of an international trade in human beings and forced into modern-day slavery. Imprisoned by employers, they are often not seen, let alone heard.

"Lured by organized crime operations, they represent an international problem that, like drug trafficking, requires an international solution," Mrs. Clinton told the guests in the East Room of the White House.

Sitting in the front row among the guests were Ukraine's Ambassador Yuri Shcherbak and his wife, Maria. The Ukrainian ambassador had conveyed his government's request for U.S. assistance in organizing an international conference during a meeting with the first lady in January.

According to official Ukrainian estimates provided by the Embassy of Ukraine, over the past 10 years some 400,000 young women left Ukraine in search of employment abroad, mostly in Europe and the Middle East.

The Ukrainian government does not know what has become of many of these women. According to recent press reports - including those in The Ukrainian Weekly (August 3, 1997) and The New York Times (January 11) - many end up in virtual slavery as servants or prostitutes.