ACTION ITEM (04/11/99)

ACTION ITEM

Re: New bill introduced in the U.S. Senate on International Trafficking of Women and children.

In order to help fight international sex trafficking, legislation has been introduced in the U.S. Senate that is aimed at providing protection and temporary asylum for the immigrant victims and holding foreign governments accountable for certain trafficking activities within their countries.

Because sex trafficking is a growing problem in the United States, Sen. Paul Wellstone (D-Minn.), the principal sponsor of the bill, and co-sponsor Rep. Louise Slaughter (D-N.Y.), felt it was necessary to protect the women and children who are in this country as a result of trafficking. A spokesman for Sen. Wellstone said that New York and Chicago have developed into key destinations for women smuggled from Russia and Ukraine.

This new bill, introduced on March 16, calls for giving the sex workers three months to decide whether to take legal action against the traffickers involved and the right to request asylum because of the risk of reprisals if they are returned to their countries. The three-month period can be extended if necessary.

S 600 would also amend the U.S. law on "involuntary servitude" to include abuses suffered by trafficked individuals who are forced to work through non-physical coercion like blackmail, debt bondage, psychological pressures and fraud, tactics commonly used by traffickers against women and children.

This new bill is S 600 - the "International Trafficking of Women and Children Victim Protection Act of 1999." The full text of the bill is available at http://www.thomas.loc.gov.

Please join in the fight against international trafficking of women and children.

The bill is currently in the Foreign Relations Committee, which is chaired by Sen. Jesse Helms (R-N.C.). Write to him at: 403 Dirksen Senate Office Building, Washington, D.C. 20510-3301; call (202) 224-6342; or fax (202) 228-1339.

Please call the senators on the committee, as well as your state's senators to support this bill. Thank you for your support.

- submitted by Olga Stawnychy, public relations chair of the World Federation of Ukrainian Women's Organizations, NGO Representative to the United Nations. (For further information contact Ms. Stawnychy at [email protected].)

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