§ 7101. — Purposes and findings.
[Laws in effect as of January 24, 2002]
[Document not affected by Public Laws enacted between
January 24, 2002 and December 19, 2002]
[CITE: 22USC7101]
TITLE 22--FOREIGN RELATIONS AND INTERCOURSE
CHAPTER 78--TRAFFICKING VICTIMS PROTECTION
Sec. 7101. Purposes and findings
(a) Purposes
The purposes of this chapter are to combat trafficking in persons, a
contemporary manifestation of slavery whose victims are predominantly
women and children, to ensure just and effective punishment of
traffickers, and to protect their victims.
(b) Findings
Congress finds that:
(1) As the 21st century begins, the degrading institution of
slavery continues throughout the world. Trafficking in persons is a
modern form of slavery, and it is the largest manifestation of
slavery today. At least 700,000 persons annually, primarily women
and children, are trafficked within or across international borders.
Approximately 50,000 women and children are trafficked into the
United States each year.
(2) Many of these persons are trafficked into the international
sex trade, often by force, fraud, or coercion. The sex industry has
rapidly expanded over the past several decades. It involves sexual
exploitation of persons, predominantly women and girls, involving
activities related to prostitution, pornography, sex tourism, and
other commercial sexual services. The low status of women in many
parts of the world has contributed to a burgeoning of the
trafficking industry.
(3) Trafficking in persons is not limited to the sex industry.
This growing transnational crime also includes forced labor and
involves significant violations of labor, public health, and human
rights standards worldwide.
(4) Traffickers primarily target women and girls, who are
disproportionately affected by poverty, the lack of access to
education, chronic unemployment, discrimination, and the lack of
economic opportunities in countries of origin. Traffickers lure
women and girls into their networks through false promises of decent
working conditions at relatively good pay as nannies, maids,
dancers, factory workers, restaurant workers, sales clerks, or
models. Traffickers also buy children from poor families and sell
them into prostitution or into various types of forced or bonded
labor.
(5) Traffickers often transport victims from their home
communities to unfamiliar destinations, including foreign countries
away from family and friends, religious institutions, and other
sources of protection and support, leaving the victims defenseless
and vulnerable.
(6) Victims are often forced through physical violence to engage
in sex acts or perform slavery-like labor. Such force includes rape
and other forms of sexual abuse, torture, starvation, imprisonment,
threats, psychological abuse, and coercion.
(7) Traffickers often make representations to their victims that
physical harm may occur to them or others should the victim escape
or attempt to escape. Such representations can have the same
coercive effects on victims as direct threats to inflict such harm.
(8) Trafficking in persons is increasingly perpetrated by
organized, sophisticated criminal enterprises. Such trafficking is
the fastest growing source of profits for organized criminal
enterprises worldwide. Profits from the trafficking industry
contribute to the expansion of organized crime in the United States
and worldwide. Trafficking in persons is often aided by official
corruption in countries of origin, transit, and destination, thereby
threatening the rule of law.
(9) Trafficking includes all the elements of the crime of
forcible rape when it involves the involuntary participation of
another person in sex acts by means of fraud, force, or coercion.
(10) Trafficking also involves violations of other laws,
including labor and immigration codes and laws against kidnapping,
slavery, false imprisonment, assault, battery, pandering, fraud, and
extortion.
(11) Trafficking exposes victims to serious health risks. Women
and children trafficked in the sex industry are exposed to deadly
diseases, including HIV and AIDS. Trafficking victims are sometimes
worked or physically brutalized to death.
(12) Trafficking in persons substantially affects interstate and
foreign commerce. Trafficking for such purposes as involuntary
servitude, peonage, and other forms of forced labor has an impact on
the nationwide employment network and labor market. Within the
context of slavery, servitude, and labor or services which are
obtained or maintained through coercive conduct that amounts to a
condition of servitude, victims are subjected to a range of
violations.
(13) Involuntary servitude statutes are intended to reach cases
in which persons are held in a condition of servitude through
nonviolent coercion. In United States v. Kozminski, 487 U.S. 931
(1988), the Supreme Court found that section 1584 of title 18,
should be narrowly interpreted, absent a definition of involuntary
servitude by Congress. As a result, that section was interpreted to
criminalize only servitude that is brought about through use or
threatened use of physical or legal coercion, and to exclude other
conduct that can have the same purpose and effect.
(14) Existing legislation and law enforcement in the United
States and other countries are inadequate to deter trafficking and
bring traffickers to justice, failing to reflect the gravity of the
offenses involved. No comprehensive law exists in the United States
that penalizes the range of offenses involved in the trafficking
scheme. Instead, even the most brutal instances of trafficking in
the sex industry are often punished under laws that also apply to
lesser offenses, so that traffickers typically escape deserved
punishment.
(15) In the United States, the seriousness of this crime and its
components is not reflected in current sentencing guidelines,
resulting in weak penalties for convicted traffickers.
(16) In some countries, enforcement against traffickers is also
hindered by official indifference, by corruption, and sometimes even
by official participation in trafficking.
(17) Existing laws often fail to protect victims of trafficking,
and because victims are often illegal immigrants in the destination
country, they are repeatedly punished more harshly than the
traffickers themselves.
(18) Additionally, adequate services and facilities do not exist
to meet victims' needs regarding health care, housing, education,
and legal assistance, which safely reintegrate trafficking victims
into their home countries.
(19) Victims of severe forms of trafficking should not be
inappropriately incarcerated, fined, or otherwise penalized solely
for unlawful acts committed as a direct result of being trafficked,
such as using false documents, entering the country without
documentation, or working without documentation.
(20) Because victims of trafficking are frequently unfamiliar
with the laws, cultures, and languages of the countries into which
they have been trafficked, because they are often subjected to
coercion and intimidation including physical detention and debt
bondage, and because they often fear retribution and forcible
removal to countries in which they will face retribution or other
hardship, these victims often find it difficult or impossible to
report the crimes committed against them or to assist in the
investigation and prosecution of such crimes.
(21) Trafficking of persons is an evil requiring concerted and
vigorous action by countries of origin, transit or destination, and
by international organizations.
(22) One of the founding documents of the United States, the
Declaration of Independence, recognizes the inherent dignity and
worth of all people. It states that all men are created equal and
that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable
rights. The right to be free from slavery and involuntary servitude
is among those unalienable rights. Acknowledging this fact, the
United States outlawed slavery and involuntary servitude in 1865,
recognizing them as evil institutions that must be abolished.
Current practices of sexual slavery and trafficking of women and
children are similarly abhorrent to the principles upon which the
United States was founded.
(23) The United States and the international community agree
that trafficking in persons involves grave violations of human
rights and is a matter of pressing international concern. The
international community has repeatedly condemned slavery and
involuntary servitude, violence against women, and other elements of
trafficking, through declarations, treaties, and United Nations
resolutions and reports, including the Universal Declaration of
Human Rights; the 1956 Supplementary Convention on the Abolition of
Slavery, the Slave Trade, and Institutions and Practices Similar to
Slavery; the 1948 American Declaration on the Rights and Duties of
Man; the 1957 Abolition of Forced Labor Convention; the
International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights; the Convention
Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or
Punishment; United Nations General Assembly Resolutions 50/167, 51/
66, and 52/98; the Final Report of the World Congress against Sexual
Exploitation of Children (Stockholm, 1996); the Fourth World
Conference on Women (Beijing, 1995); and the 1991 Moscow Document of
the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.
(24) Trafficking in persons is a transnational crime with
national implications. To deter international trafficking and bring
its perpetrators to justice, nations including the United States
must recognize that trafficking is a serious offense. This is done
by prescribing appropriate punishment, giving priority to the
prosecution of trafficking offenses, and protecting rather than
punishing the victims of such offenses. The United States must work
bilaterally and multilaterally to abolish the trafficking industry
by taking steps to promote cooperation among countries linked
together by international trafficking routes. The United States must
also urge the international community to take strong action in
multilateral fora to engage recalcitrant countries in serious and
sustained efforts to eliminate trafficking and protect trafficking
victims.
(Pub. L. 106-386, div. A, Sec. 102, Oct. 28, 2000, 114 Stat. 1466.)
References in Text
This chapter, referred to in subsec. (a), was in the original ``this
division'' meaning division A of Pub. L. 106-386, Oct. 28, 2000, 114
Stat. 1466, which is classified principally to this chapter. For
complete classification of division A to the Code, see section 101 of
Pub. L. 106-386, set out as a Short Title note below, and Tables.
Short Title
Pub. L. 106-386, Sec. 1, Oct. 28, 2000, 114 Stat. 1464, provided
that: ``This Act [see Tables for classification] may be cited as the
`Victims of Trafficking and Violence Protection Act of 2000'.''
Pub. L. 106-386, div. A, Sec. 101, Oct. 28, 2000, 114 Stat. 1466,
provided that: ``This division [enacting this chapter, section 2152d of
this title, and sections 1589 to 1594 of Title 18, Crimes and Criminal
Procedure, and amending sections 2151n and 2304 of this title, sections
1101, 1182, 1184, and 1255 of Title 8, Aliens and Nationality, and
sections 1581, 1583, and 1584 of Title 18] may be cited as the
`Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000'.''
