National Policy Center Issues First Ever State-By-State Report Card on International Trafficking of Women and Girls into the United States
Report Card Commends States’ Efforts and Urges Further Action
WASHINGTON, D.C. (May 23, 2007)--The Center for Women Policy Studies today issued the first ever state-by-state analysis of state legislatures’ efforts to confront trafficking of women and girls into the United States, a global women’s human rights crisis. The Report Card on State Action to Combat International Trafficking found that 27 states have enacted some form of legislation to combat trafficking, while 23 states received a grade of ‘F’ for failing to take any action on this critical issue.
The report recognizes the exceptional leadership of state legislators nationwide who passed new laws between 2002 and 2006 and makes recommendations for those states that have not yet passed such legislation.
“The United States is a major ‘destination’ country for traffickers and each of our 50 states must join the federal government in responding,” said Center president Leslie R. Wolfe. “Women and girls are trafficked into our country for forced labor and involuntary servitude in horrific conditions in sweatshops, brothels, agricultural fields, and domestic servitude.”
The Center promotes a comprehensive approach to state policy on trafficking. The Report Card assesses each state’s law and policy in five areas: criminalization of trafficking; protection and assistance to victims of trafficking; creation of statewide interagency task forces to study the nature and extent of trafficking of people into the state; regulation of international marriage brokers who operate in the state, and regulation of travel service providers that facilitate sex tourism.
The Center’s survey found that 25 states had criminalized trafficking; 10 states created statewide interagency task forces, commissions or special studies on the issue; four states passed laws to regulate international marriage brokers that operate in the state, and four states enacted laws to regulate travel service providers that facilitate sex tourism.
Since 1999, the Center for Women Policy Studies has been fighting the war on trafficking of women and girls into the United States. “We have traveled the country to work with advocates, service providers, communities of women religious and, especially, our stellar national network of state legislators who lead the way in policy change to support women’s human rights,” said Wolfe. “We issue this Report Card to recognize their leadership and inspire their colleagues in other states to take action.”
Although the United States Congress passed the landmark Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000 and President Clinton signed it into law, each state should enact its own comprehensive anti-trafficking laws to enable state and local governments and service providers to respond to this crisis and to create powerful partnerships with federal agencies. According to a 2005 poll by Lake Research Partners, commissioned by the Center, most Americans did not know about international trafficking of women and girls into the USA. But once they heard the facts, 65 percent of likely voters agreed that state governments should take action.
The Report Card on State Action to Combat International Trafficking includes analysis and recommendations from the Center. The report cards for all 50 states can be accessed by logging onto www.centerwomenpolicy.org.
About the Center for Women Policy Studies (www.centerwomenpolicy.org)
The Center for Women Policy Studies, founded in 1972, promotes public policy that will improve women’s lives and preserve women’s human rights. A hallmark of the Center’s work is its multiethnic feminist approach to all policy issues affecting women and girls. Since 1999, the Center has worked closely with state legislators nationwide — as their “national staff”— to create the policy framework that will enable states to prosecute and punish traffickers while protecting and supporting women and girls who have been trafficked into the United States.
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CONTACT
Lisa Hanna
Turner Strategies
lisa@turnerstrategies.com
(202) 466-9633
Leslie R. Wolfe
Center for Women Policy Studies
lwolfe@centerwomenpolicy.org
(202) 872-1770, ext. 208
